Integrating event-based production information with financial and purchasing systems in product manufacturing

ABSTRACT

Integrating event-based production information with financial and purchasing systems in product manufacturing. Some of the disclosed embodiments include a method of tracking production information, a method of analyzing event-based production information to provide financial reports, a method of adapting an online production documentation system to provide financial report data, and a production documentation system. Also disclosed are computer-readable media for storing a data structure representing an event-based delay or waste record populated during manufacturing, and a method of automatically generating an alert and providing an associated financial report in a process for manufacturing a product associated with an event-based information system. The embodiments are operable in an intelligent manufacturing system including a process for converting raw materials to a product, a process control system including one or more sensors capable of generating an alarm in response to an event that results in one of waste, machine delay, or decrease product quality, a data logger associated with the process control system for obtaining event parameters associated with the event, a database on a server for recording event parameters obtained by the data logger, and a reporting system cooperatively associated with the database for reporting productivity parameters regarding the process derived at least in part from the event parameters.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 60/344,747, filed Dec. 28, 2001, herein incorporated byreference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002] The present invention relates to the field of productmanufacturing. In particular, this invention relates to integratingevent-based production information with financial and purchasing systemsin product manufacturing.

BACKGROUND

[0003] In manufacturing, the realized capacity of a machine orproduction facility may be substantially less than the theoreticallymaximum capacity for any number of reasons, including machine stoppageor delay caused by quality problems, machine failure, inadequatemanpower, unavailable raw materials, and the like. Many attempts havebeen made to improve statistical process control of machines and plantsto improve quality, and other efforts have been made to optimize machinemaintenance, raw materials purchasing, inventory management and so forthto generally increase productivity.

[0004] Previous efforts have failed to adequately document and analyzethe many factors that may be associated with machine delay or otherproductivity problems. Further, a manufacturing information system doesnot yet appear to have been developed which can directly provideaccounting data for financial reports based on data obtained directlyfrom a manufacturing site pertaining to process events and associatedproductivity parameters.

[0005] Thus, there is a need to provide an improved manufacturinginformation system for tracking and analyzing causes of delay and wastein manufacturing. There is also a need to integrate the improvedmanufacturing information system with financial reporting means to allowaccountants, management, and others to readily obtain financialinformation regarding one or more machines or plants.

[0006] Further, in the production of goods from raw materials andintermediate components, it is an ongoing challenge to ensure thatproper raw materials are used, and to track the effect of the rawmaterials on the productivity of a machine. Improved systems are neededfor handling and tracking raw materials to improve the productivity of aprocess. For example, using present systems, it is often possible for anincorrect raw material to be loaded into a process, and that process maycontinue to operate for hours, yielding product that does not complywith specifications, sometimes resulting in enormous waste. There is aneed for improved automated systems to prevent such waste and validateraw materials used in a process.

[0007] For these reasons, an event-based manufacturing informationsystem is desired to address one or more of these and otherdisadvantages.

SUMMARY

[0008] The invention is operable in an intelligent manufacturing systemincluding a process for converting raw materials to a product, a processcontrol system including one or more sensors capable of generating analarm in response to an event that results in one of waste, machinedelay, or decrease product quality, a data logger associated with theprocess control system for obtaining event parameters associated withthe event, a database on a server for recording event parametersobtained by the data logger, and a reporting system cooperativelyassociated with the database for reporting productivity parametersregarding the process derived at least in part from the eventparameters.

[0009] Briefly, a method tracks production information. The methodincludes collecting event-based production information duringmanufacture of a product. The production information includes event datapertaining to waste and/or delay. The method also includes storing thecollected production information in a database for processing. Themethod also includes providing access to the stored productioninformation to a financial system and/or a purchasing system.

[0010] In one aspect, a method analyzes event-based productioninformation to provide financial reports. The method includes obtainingevent-based production information pertaining to waste and/or delay froma documentation system in a manufacturing system. The method alsoincludes storing the received production information in a database forprocessing. The method also includes generating a financial report basedon the stored production information.

[0011] In another aspect, a method adapts an online productiondocumentation system to provide financial report data. The methodincludes identifying one or more event-based key performance indicators.The method also includes modifying output of a production documentationsystem to automatically track and generate the identified keyperformance indicators during manufacturing. The method also includesobtaining the generated key performance indicators from the productiondocumentation system. The production documentation system includes eventrecords each having an event code, a timestamp, and a measure of costassociated with the event. The method includes automatically generatingsummary data pertaining to the key performance indicators for apredetermined period of time. The method incorporates the summary datapertaining to the key performance indicators into a financial report.

[0012] In still another aspect, a production documentation systemincludes a first database storing event-based production informationcollected during manufacturing. The production information includesautomatically generated records pertaining to waste and/or delay. Therecords each include an event code, a timestamp, and a measure of lostproduction associated with the event. The system also includes a reportcomponent for creating a financial report by accessing the storedproduction information. The system also includes a second database forstoring the created reports.

[0013] In yet another aspect, one or more computer-readable media havecomputer-executable components including a control system, a databasemodule, and a report module. The control system collects event-basedproduction information during manufacture of a product. The databasemodule stores the collected production information in a database forprocessing. The report module creates a financial report by accessingthe stored production information.

[0014] In another aspect, one or more computer-readable media store adata structure representing an event-based delay record populated duringmanufacturing. The data structure includes fields storing a delay code,a value representing a delay duration, a timestamp, and a product count.

[0015] In still another aspect, one or more computer-readable mediastore a data structure representing an event-based waste recordpopulated during manufacturing. The data structure includes fieldsstoring a waste code, a defect count, a timestamp, and a product count.

[0016] In yet another aspect, a method tracks production information.The method includes collecting event-based production information duringmanufacture of a product. The production information includes event datapertaining to at least one of waste and delay summarized from aplurality of converting lines. The method also includes storing thecollected production information in a database for processing. Themethod also includes providing access to the stored productioninformation to a financial system and/or a purchasing system.

[0017] In another aspect, a method tracks production information. Themethod includes collecting event-based production information duringmanufacture of a product. The collecting includes capturing automaticdelay information on an event basis. The capturing includes creating adelay record in a database when a converting line halts duringmanufacture of the product. The delay record includes at least one ofdelay duration, a timestamp, and a product count. The method alsoincludes storing the collected production information in a database forprocessing. The method also includes providing access to the storedproduction information to a financial system and/or a purchasing system.

[0018] In still another aspect, a method tracks production information.The method includes collecting event-based production information duringmanufacture of a product. The collecting includes capturing wasteinformation on an event basis. The capturing includes creating a wasterecord in a database when a converting line halts during manufacture ofthe product. The waste record includes at least one of a waste code, adefect count, a timestamp, and a product count. The method also includesstoring the collected production information in a database forprocessing. The method also includes providing access to the storedproduction information to a financial system and/or a purchasing system.

[0019] In one aspect, in a process for manufacturing a productassociated with an event-based information system having means foridentifying an event related to at least one of waste and delay andmeans for recording the event in an event database, a methodautomatically generates an alert and provides an associated financialreport. The method includes calculating the cost of waste and/or delayevents during manufacturing based on event information recorded in anevent database associated with the manufacturing process. The methodalso includes setting a cost-based alert criterion for automatic reportgeneration of an alert. The criterion is selected from a cost thresholdfor waste and/or delay during a predetermined unit of time for one ormore event categories and a cost threshold for a total of one or more ofthe events in succession. The method also includes comparing thecalculated cost to the cost-based alert criterion to determine if thealert criterion has been met. In response to the alert criterion beingmet, the method automatically generates an alert and provides access toa financial report conveying information pertaining to the calculatedcost.

[0020] In another aspect, a method tracks production information. Themethod includes collecting event-based production information duringmanufacture of a product. The production information includes eventdata. The method also includes storing the collected productioninformation in a database for processing. The method also includesproviding access to the stored production information to a financialsystem and/or a purchasing system.

[0021] In still another aspect, a production documentation systemincludes a first database storing event-based production informationcollected during manufacturing. The production information includesautomatically generated records. The records each include an event code,a timestamp, and a measure of lost production associated with the event.The system also includes a report component for creating a financialreport by accessing the stored production information. The system alsoincludes a second database for storing the created reports.

[0022] Alternatively, the invention may comprise various other methodsand apparatuses.

[0023] Other features will be in part apparent and in part pointed outhereinafter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0024]FIG. 1 is an exemplary block diagram illustrating a manufacturingprocess for a product that includes a first process producing anintermediate product from a raw material and a second process producinga final product from the intermediate product.

[0025]FIG. 2 is an exemplary block diagram illustrating a manufacturingprocess for a product with a bill of materials explicitly shown.

[0026]FIG. 3 is an exemplary flow chart showing several of the stepsinvolved in a system according to the invention used for financialreporting.

[0027]FIG. 4 is an exemplary graph illustrating one definition of delayduring a series of events relating to machine productivity over time.

[0028]FIG. 5 is an exemplary block diagram illustrating ways in whichthe realized capacity (productivity or production rate) of a machine maybe less than the maximum capacity.

[0029]FIG. 6 is an exemplary block diagram depicting an embodiment of acommercial operation according to the invention in which raw materialsare converted by a process to yield a product.

[0030]FIG. 7 is an exemplary block diagram depicting another embodimentof a commercial operation according to the invention in which rawmaterials are converted by a process to yield a product

[0031]FIG. 8 is an exemplary flow chart showing steps preceding theshipment of a product to a manufacturer, in association with themanufacturer's use of a system according to the invention.

[0032]FIG. 9 is an exemplary block diagram depicting one embodiment of ahardware configuration according to the invention.

[0033]FIG. 10A and FIG. 10B are exemplary block diagrams showing how theproduct variables and process variables may be loaded, saved, andupdated for a manufacturing process incorporating a system of thepresent invention.

[0034]FIG. 11 is an exemplary flow chart illustrating audit operationsfor modifying data from a database according to the invention.

[0035]FIG. 12 is an exemplary flow chart illustrating audit operationsfor deleting data from a database according to the invention.

[0036]FIG. 13 is a screen shot of the user interface for one exemplaryembodiment of the invention illustrating a menu allowing selections forreport generation.

[0037]FIG. 14 is an exemplary graph illustrating normalized probabilityof machine stop over time.

[0038]FIG. 15 is an exemplary bar chart illustrating the yield in aplant over a ten-week period, including weekly averages, a movingthree-week average, and an average from the previous quarter.

[0039]FIG. 16 is an exemplary bar chart illustrating the uptime in aplant over a ten-week period, including weekly averages, a movingthree-week average, and an average from the previous quarter.

[0040]FIG. 17 is an exemplary bar chart illustrating opportunity costsfor a single delay event on a single machine including weekly resultsover ten weeks and a three-week moving average.

[0041]FIG. 18 is an exemplary bar chart illustrating the top six mostcostly causes of opportunity loss for a specified time period on aparticular machine.

[0042] Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding partsthroughout the drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0043] An intelligent manufacturing system for tracking productioninformation from one or more manufacturing facilities has beendeveloped. The system is known as PIPE (Process Information Per Event).PIPE collects, stores, and reports production information such asconverting machine productivity, waste, and delay information on anevent basis. In this system, machine data from sensors and other controlmeans are continually monitored for events related to productivityand/or product quality, such as product waste, machine down time,machine slow downs, product maintenance, machine failure, etc.Customized rules may be established to specify how events are classifiedand what types of events are to be logged (normally, all sources ofdelay may be logged and coupled with additional data). These events maybe spaced apart in time by time steps that typically are not constant,and may be substantially randomly spaced in time, or may becharacterized in that the standard deviation of the time step betweensuccessive events is large relative to the mean, such that the ratio ofthe standard deviation to the mean time step during a week of productionis about 0.2 or greater, specifically about 0.5 or greater, and mostspecifically about 1.0 or greater. Time steps between successive eventsmay range, for example, from a few seconds or minutes to hours or days,depending on the process.

[0044] An “event,” as used herein, refers to any incident that mayaffect the productivity of a process or machine in use to produce aproduct, or that may adversely affect the quality of the product beingproduced. Events that adversely affect the productivity of a process ormachine by increasing delay are “adverse productivity events.”Productivity events that lead to waste are “waste events,” while thosethat cause delay are “delay events.” Events that adversely affect thequality of a product are “adverse quality events.” As used herein,“intermediate events” may refer to incidents during a first process forthe production of an intermediate product to be used as a raw material(starting material) in a second process for the production of a finishedproduct (or another intermediate product or product component), whereinthe incident in the first process may affect the productivity of thesecond process or adversely affect the quality of the product of thesecond process. Thus, an intermediate event in a first process may leadto an adverse productivity event or an adverse quality event in a secondprocess. An adverse quality event may also refer to incidents that mayadversely affect the quality of an intermediate product, such that therisk of rejection of the product by a subsequent user (including anindustrial user) is increased. The PIPE system may be used to track anyor all types of events, including events from multiple machines andprocesses wherein intermediate products from early processes or machinesare used as raw materials in later processes or machines, and optionallywherein the event data for the intermediate products are used byoperators or process control equipment to properly execute thesubsequent processes based on the events associated with theintermediate product or, in general, with the quality and propertyattributes of the intermediate product as recorded at least in part witha system including PIPE.

[0045] Examples of events may include a web break, a component failurein a machine, a loss of manpower (e.g., inadequate employees presentduring a shift), a loss of power, a fire, machine shutdown to change agrade (“changeover”) or perform routine maintenance, unacceptablequality in raw materials, market curtailment (e.g., inadequate orders orexcess inventory), an experimental run, a startup, and the like.

[0046] As used herein, “production information” includes waste data,delay data, and any other data related to production. In some systems,production information is segregated from waste and delay data, eventhough waste and delay data are considered production information. Ingeneral, the invention is operable with any form of waste data, delaydata, or other production information or event data. For example,production information includes raw material usage information. Rawmaterial usage information includes, but is not limited to, a rawmaterial lot number, an amount of material in a roll, a time the rollwas spliced on or off, a supplier of the material, a number of productsproduced from the roll of material, and a date the material wasproduced.

[0047] PIPE event data obtained during production are stored in adatabase associated with descriptor information. This information may beused to generate financial reports automatically for use by anaccounting department, a plant manager, financial officers, or others,or for use in an internal or public publication such as a report or webpage. The PIPE information may be rolled up from multiple machines,plants, sectors, and so forth, including a corporate-wide roll-up ofPIPE data, to provide roll-up productivity measures.

[0048] The data from the machine are monitored and logged by a PIPEEvent Logger, which may include an event logger and a machine logger.The event logger may also serve many functions in addition to receivingand processing data, such as ensuring that the raw materials fit thespecifications for the product to be made (in cooperation with aseparate raw materials tracking system described hereafter), or linkingoperating data to the PIPE database, or ensuring that adequateexplanations have been entered by operators to explain delay states thatoccurred on the machine. The machine logger provides an interface foroperators to provide explanations about delay states or product waste,but generally does not collect data from sensors or productionequipment. The event logger and the machine logger may be separateprograms or be part of a single program, or functions of both may beshared or split between multiple programs and servers.

[0049] The system may be structured to support multiple converting linesin multiple plants as an enterprise information system. According to thepresent invention, a plant information system or enterprise informationsystem may be adapted to allow corporate financial and purchasingsystems to receive information from the PIPE system for direct use.Production reporting systems may be directly linked to multiple PIPEdata streams to provide rolled-up financial information or informationfor a single asset. The PIPE system and its accounting module may beinterfaced with or cooperatively associated with accounting softwaresuch as SAP brand software and SAP/R3, process control software such asWONDERWARE brand manufacturing and process control operator-machineinterface software (Wonderware Corp., Irvine, Calif.), neural networks,expert systems, fuzzy logic systems, and many other suitable softwaresystems. Further, the PIPE system may automatically submit work requestsand purchase orders to deal with causes of delays (particularlyequipment failure) as they are encountered. Further, the PIPE system maybe used to mine process and quality data to identify means to improveproductivity or quality.

[0050] Data from the PIPE system may also be integrated with othersoftware systems for financial tracking, production management andplanning, supply chain management, inventory control, maintenance andreliability engineering, customer relationship management (CRM), and thelike. For example, PIPE data may be included in the sources ofinformation treated by POWERFACTORE software from KPMG Consulting(McLean, Va.). With this approach, the relationship between systemmaintenance schedules and product quality may also be explored tooptimize operations to improve financial returns.

[0051] PIPE data may also be integrated with data warehousing systemssuch as the SAS INTELLIGENT WAREHOUSING SOLUTION marketed by the SASInstitute, Inc. (Cary, N.C.) and the KALIDO brand computer databasemanagement programs by Kalido, Inc. (Houston, Tex.) such as the DynamicInformation Warehouse. Likewise, SAS/INTRNET brand computer software andSAS online analytical processing (OLAP) technology from the SASInstitute, Inc. may be combined with the PIPE system. Other exemplaryOLAP tools include the ESSBASE DB2 OLAP software from Hyperion SolutionsCorporation (Sunnyvale, Calif.) and COGNOS POWERPLAY of CognosIncorporated (Ottawa, Canada). General principles on the combination ofOLAP with data warehousing are disclosed by Surajit Chaudhuri andUmeshwar Dayal, “An Overview of Data Warehousing and OLAP Technology,”ACM Sigmod Record, March 1997.

[0052] Other data warehousing and maintenance methods may be applied. Byway of example, principles of data warehousing and warehousingtechnology are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,418,450, “Data WarehousePrograms Architecture,” issued Jul. 9, 2002 to Daudenarde; U.S. Pat. No.6,353,835, “Technique for Effectively Maintaining Materialized Views InA Data Warehouse,” issued Mar. 5, 2002 to Lieuwen; U.S. Pat. No.6,178,418, “Distributed Data Warehouse Query and Resource ManagementSystem,” issued Jan. 23, 2001 to Singer; U.S. Pat. No. 6,138,121,“Network Management Event Storage and Manipulation Using RelationalDatabase Technology in a Data Warehouse,” issued Oct. 24, 2000 to Costaet al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,781,911, “Integrated System and Method ofData Warehousing and Delivery,” issued Jul. 14, 1998 to Young et al.Historical, summarized, and consolidated data are typically present indata warehouses, which may be queried to guide decision making and thedevelopment of business plans, or to prepare summary financial reports.

[0053] In addition, the PIPE system may be combined with NET PROPLAN andother manufacturing execution systems (MES) software systems and modulesin the NET COLLECTION by Network Systems International, Inc.(Greensboro, N.C.). For example, the PIPE data may be integrated withthe NET SCHEDULER module and the NET EVENT TRACKER system. In addition,the PIPE system may be integrated or modified to communicate with theFOLDERS system and the FACTELLIGENCE brand software for assistingmanufacturing operations by CIMNET (Robesonia, Pa.).

[0054] Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems may be coupled withPIPE systems. Exemplary ERP systems include those marketed by supplierssuch as SAP (Newtown Square, Pa.), J D Edwards (Denver, Colo.),Manugistics (Rockville, Md.), Siebel Systems (San Mateo, Calif.), ROISystems (Minneapolis, Minn.) including the MANAGE 2000 brandpre-recorded computer programs, or custom built systems. An exemplarytool for integrating PIPE data and other data with ERP systems (SAP R/3systems in particular) and generating financial reports is DATAINTEGRATOR of Business Objects Americas, Inc. (San Jose, Calif.).

[0055] Existing software and known methods may be used to determine thefinancial costs of waste and delays. A computer system for determiningthe financial cost of various production problems and processbottlenecks is disclosed by Van Der Vegt and Thompson in U.S. Pat. No.6,144,893, issued Nov. 7, 2000, and in U.S. Pat. No. 6,128,540, issuedOct. 3, 2000, both of which are herein incorporated by reference to theextent they are non-contradictory herewith. Columns 1 to 12 in U.S. Pat.No. 6,144,893 disclose the computer method, and columns 12 to 19 thereindisclose a method for generating a problem priority table for problemsin the process. The determination of the cost of a process problem maybe calculated based on whether the process is constrained by productionlimitations or whether the process is sales constrained (demand for theproduct is less than the maximum capacity of the machine).

[0056] Integrated systems, in which PIPE and other systems tie intopurchasing and financial systems, may be used for many purposes. Forexample, information about a machine failure detected by PIPE may beused to automatically order a failed part with an asset managementprocess utilizing SAP or other systems. Production tracked with PIPE maybe combined with financial reporting tools, components, or modules aswell. Neural network/fuzzy logic analysis of PIPE and related data,including raw material data that is linked to the PIPE system via a rawmaterial tracking system, may be used to optimize profitability andimprove process control, identify weaknesses in systems, parts, orvendor performance, and so forth. Results may be displayed on a web pageto local or remote viewers (typically authorized viewers only);displayed via a client (e.g., through a window on a monitor for aHuman-Machine Interface such as WONDERWARE brand manufacturing andprocess control operator-machine interface software); incorporated intoweekly, monthly, and annual reports; used to guide daily operations; andso forth. Time series of productivity parameters, such as measures ofwaste or delay may be displayed graphically to show trends or ranges, intabulated form, including means and for various periods of time, and soforth. Productivity results may be sorted and/or displayed according tosector, machine type, product classification, geographical location,technology or raw material types used in production (to examine theeffect of a change in a production technology or raw materialimplemented at one or more plants), and the like. In generating reports,any suitable type of chart or graph may be used, and results may be putinto any suitable software format.

[0057] PIPE may be adapted to provide information for key performanceindicators (KPIs) expressed in terms of common performance measures,wherein a standardized definition and formula based on PIPE data isapplied. For example, one KPI may be percent total waste, expressed asthe ratio of the total number of products discarded to the totalproducts made. KPIs are identified by financial departments to describeprofitability, efficiency, production rates, etc., for individualmachines, plants, groups of plants, product categories, and so forth.Another KPI may be system rate, which is the actual machine speeddivided by target speed, commonly expressed as a percentage. Actualspeed may be defined as total standard units produced divided by actualhours of operation. Waste may be calculated as total units producedminus acceptable units products, or may be expressed as a percentage,(total units−acceptable units)/total units×100%. Percent yield may beexpressed as 100%-percent waste. Efficiency may be expressed as percentuptime x percent yield/100%. Percent reliability may be expressed assystem rate*percent uptime*percent yield/10,000%.

[0058] Another factor that may be used to characterize the productivityof a machine is the “Rate of Operation” (R/O), defined as the number ofnon-rejected standard unit products produced per hour (standard unitproducts is the number of products divided by a sector standardizedunit; for example, a standard unit of diapers could be set at 1,000, to50,000 diapers would be 50 standard units).

[0059] Machines or processes also may be evaluated in terms ofopportunity costs, which generally refer to the financial cost of wasteor delay (include slow machine speed). As used herein, “WasteOpportunity Cost” is the direct cost of wasted products plus the delaycost. As used herein, the “Delay Opportunity Cost” is the direct cost ofmachine down time plus the cost of wasted product as a result ofrestarting the machine plus the cost of time that is spent disposing ofwasted product. Also as used herein, the “Slow Running Opportunity Cost”is the cost of the machine running at a speed less than the ideal speed(determined on a per machine level), producing less product as a result.

[0060] To achieve standardized reporting, PIPE systems may provideinformation about production modes. Production modes may describe thestatus of a machine at any given moment, such as whether a machine isoperating, down for scheduled maintenance, being used for a researchrun, and so forth. The production mode information from the PIPE systemallows down time or delays in production to be counted appropriately byfinancial departments. Thus, the PIPE output may include fields orrecords for production mode. In one embodiment, data entered into aproduction mode field are automatically screened for correctness (e.g.,upon entry and again upon the next start up), and errors or ambiguitiesare flagged for correction.

[0061] Other output parameters may be modified to comply with standarddefinitions required by finance or other users of the data. Thus, in oneembodiment, the integrated system and its method of use include a methodfor adapting an online production documentation system to providefinancial report data for a machine, including the steps of identifyingone or more key performance indicators pertaining to the machinerequired for a financial report, modifying the output of the productiondocumentation system to automatically track and generate the keyperformance indicators suitable for use in a financial report, receivingthe key performance indicator information from the productiondocumentation system, and incorporating the key performance indicatorinformation directly into a financial report such as an electronicreport (e.g., a web page or electronic chart). In one embodiment, thegenerated reports are maintained by the production documentation systemfor a preset time interval for future retrieval. In this manner,frequently requested reports may be delivered quickly with reducedprocessing overhead.

[0062] PIPE reports may be generated to report on operations on any ofseveral levels, such as at the level of section or subsection of amachine (e.g., monthly defects, waste, or delays in a film productionline caused by excessive arcing in a secondary corona treatment sectionof an apertured film line), at the machine level (e.g., hours of delayper month for the entire film surface treatment converting machine, orpercent uptime for a lotion packaging line), for a product code (e.g., aparticular type of apertured films for use in sanitary napkins), at theplant level (e.g., percent waste for a film production plant, or ageneral plant summary), at the sector level (e.g., average percentuptime for all film plants in a sector), or at the corporate level(potential lost sales per quarter based on total waste and delay). Theleading (most frequent or most costly) types of waste or delay eventsmay be listed by machine, by section, by plant, by sector, and so forth.Detailed daily, weekly, monthly, or annual reports by machine, plant, orsector may be generated, and may be applied to specific products orproduct categories. Production, waste, or delay by shift or crew mayalso be reported.

[0063] Applications of PIPE financial information to the general ledgerand various subledgers may be achieved via Charts of Accounts and othertools, as described by Dan Hughes, “Designing the Financial DataWarehouse.”

[0064] In the past, there was typically a significant delay between theacquisition of data pertaining to productivity, loss, or waste for amachine and the generation of a corresponding report for review bymanagement or incorporation into Corporate reports. Further, suchreports were generally limited in terms of what could be displayed,often being static reports rather than live, customizable reports. Thescope of the present invention includes an automated reporting systemadapted to provide more timely and flexible reports based on PIPE datawhich may be provided to management, incorporated into corporate reportsor intranet pages, used to call for remedial action or other decisionmaking processes, and the like.

[0065] In one embodiment, a method for automatically generating an alertcomprising

[0066] a financial report based on event data comprises: a) settingalert criteria for automatic report generation of an alert, such asetting including a cost threshold for a predetermined unit of time(e.g., a shift, day, or week, or moving time frames such as the pasthour, 24 hours, 3 days, week, and so forth), such as the total cost ofwaste and delay during the unit of time, the total cost of waste anddelay from a specified subcategory of event types during the unit oftime (e.g., web breaks or equipment failure), or, rather thanconsidering costs over a unit of time, also or alternatively setting athreshold for the cost of any single event or any event of apredetermined type (e.g., generate an alert if any waste event has acost of $2,000 or greater, or results in a lost of at least 500 units ofproduction);

[0067] b) repeatedly calculating costs for events during manufacturingbased on event information being recorded in a PIPE database associatedwith the manufacturing process, the costs being calculated for theevents and periods of time specified in the alert criteria, andcomparing the costs to the alert criteria to determine if the alertcriteria have been met;

[0068] c) in response to the alert criteria being met, automaticallygenerating an alert comprising (or directing attention to) an electronicfinancial report conveying information pertaining to the costs that havemet the alert criteria, and issuing the alert electronically to asupervisor.

[0069] For example, the alert may comprise a message indicating thatcumulative waste or delay events during a predetermined period of timehave exceeded a specified threshold, and provide a chart showing the topten categories of waste and delay events in terms of cost, or a table ofevents showing the nature and cost of the most expensive events or allevents that contributed to the alert. The financial report may compriseinteractive electronic information such as a bar graph with electroniccontrols (drop-down box, radio buttons, etc.) to allow the viewer tocontrol the format and content of the displayed information (e.g.,selecting the top N waster or delay events as a function ofuser-selectable periods of time, product categories, machine sections,shifts, and the like). The alert may be sent by e-mail, or anotherelectronic notification means may direct the viewer to use a link to thefinancial report information that is provided separately from thenotice. The user, who may be a supervisor or executive, may then callfor remedial action to deal with possible causes of the productionproblems that led to issuance of the alert. In one embodiment, themethod further comprises automatically indicating one or more possibleremedial actions that may be taken to reduce the production problem. Theindicated remedial actions may be suggested by an expert system or othermeans, and information on the costs associated with the remedial actionmay be automatically included to enable better or more rapiddecision-making.

[0070] The time delay between the occurrence of an event thatcontributes to a cost threshold being exceeded and subsequent issuanceof an alert coupled with access to electronic financial reports based onevent data may be arbitrarily short. The time delay between events andreports according to the present invention may less than a day, lessthan eight hours, less than an hour, less than ten minutes, less thanthree minutes, or less than a minute. Indeed, live reports may includefinancial information about events that have occurred only a few secondsbefore generation of the live report.

[0071] The time frame for computation of cumulative costs may be amoving time frame, whose endpoint continually advances in time (e.g., aspan of one week ending with the current time), or a fixed time frame,with fixed starting and end points, such as the days, weeks or months ofthe calendar.

[0072] Alerts comprising electronic reports may also be issued toappropriate personnel in response to other information extracted byanalysis of event data in the PIPE database. An increased rate ofoccurrence of one type of event may, for example, be indicative ofexcessive wear of a machine component. Not only may an alert be sent tomaintenance staff that a component is in need of replacement, but thereport system may be configured to automatically compile historicalevent data associated with that particular component of the machine tocalculate historical and recent or projected maintenance costs for thatcomponent to allow a supervisor to assess the need for improvements inmachine or component design to reduce costs associated with maintenanceof the component. In one embodiment, a report comprising historical costinformation associated with the performance and/or maintenance of amachine component (including the entire machine itself) is generatedwhen problems with the component's performance or maintenance appear tobe causing waste and delay at a rate or level beyond a predeterminedthreshold. In that case, management may be alerted that unusual orunanticipated costs are being accrued and that remedial action may beneeded. Again, an expert system may recommend remedial action andinclude information on the costs associated with the remedial action toenable better or more rapid decision-making.

[0073] A subset of the PIPE system, herein referred to as STORM (Systemfor Tracking Online Raw Materials), may be used to provide databaseinformation about raw materials accepted by a plant for use during theproduction of a product. The STORM system may provide access to rawmaterial properties, vendor information, and so forth. Productivity dataobtained by the PIPE system for a product may be combined with rawmaterial information from STORM to provide archived information aboutthe ingredients of a product, to permit analysis of the effect ofvarious raw material attributes on the productivity of the process orthe quality of the resulting products, and so forth. Possible functionsof the STORM system in the context of the present invention may include:

[0074] Tracking and reporting consumed raw material.

[0075] Linking raw material data to finished or intermediate products.

[0076] Validating raw material (e.g., shutting down the machine if anincorrect raw material is loaded).

[0077] Collecting raw material waste data.

[0078] Rejecting and tracking reject material.

[0079] Tracking partially consumed raw materials (e.g., partially usedroll goods or bales).

[0080] Linking specific lots of raw material to machine waste and delayresults.

[0081] Linking specific raw material events (e.g., splicing) to machinewaste and delay results.

[0082] STORM may employ a separate database of raw material informationthat may be linked to a PIPE database and software. Raw material orpointers to such data may be integrated as a component of a PIPEdatabase, if desired. A related system for electronically trackingmaterial properties of raw materials and generating certificates ofanalysis for their use is disclosed in commonly owned U.S. patentapplication serial number 10/253200, “Supplier Data Management System,”filed Sep. 23, 2002 by Amy H. Boyd et al., herein incorporated byreference. In this system, raw material data and certificates ofcorrection, as well as information about product specifications,delivery and use dates and locations, etc., may all be included in thePIPE database or linked to data in the PIPE database.

[0083] In general, electronic means of receiving and processing rawmaterial data in order to create electronic certificates of analysis maybe integrated with PIPE such that the PIPE database provides access to acertificate of analysis or a link (pointer) to the certificate and itsassociated data (vendor, manufacture date, raw material properties, testmethods used, batch number, date of receipt, etc.), such that the rawmaterial data may be considered in subsequent analysis of delay or wastebased on the PIPE database.

[0084] In one embodiment, a raw materials database (e.g., a certificateof analysis database) is used to store and merge raw material data. Thedata may be provided by a vendor or collected by the manufacturer orboth. For converting operations with roll goods, for example, the datamay be collected in three steps of the converting process: materialload, material start (or splice on), and material expire (or spliceoff). Prior to loading a raw material onto the converting machine,material label information is transferred to the raw materials database(such as from label bar codes using bar code scanners). This includesmaterial label information such as part number, lot number, andquantity. The converting line keeps a product counter that resets at afixed preset. This product counter is a reference number that istransferred to the database on certain machine events. At the time amaterial starts to be consumed and at the time a material expires theconverting machine transfers reference information such as a timestampand product count to the database. This information gets merged with thelabel information.

[0085] Another source of data that may be combined with a PIPE system isa database of consumer complaints or other post-manufacturing qualityindicators. Many producers of consumer products and other goods maintainone or more databases of information obtained from users of products,either from users or consumers contacting the manufacturer to register acomplaint (e.g., data logged by customer service representatives,including type of complaint and lot number of the product, if available,or date and place of purchase to help identify the time period ofmanufacture), or from surveys of users, focus groups, test markets,responses to targeted promotions, and so forth. Such data, whenassociated with lot numbers or other information regarding themanufacture of the product, may be linked to the corresponding PIPEdata. Establishing a link between post-manufacturing quality measuresand the PIPE database may permit data analysis to be performed toidentify possible relationships between operating conditions andconsumer complaints or other measures of quality.

[0086] The PIPE system and other related systems disclosed herein, aswell as methods of using such systems for improved productivity,financial reporting, raw materials handling, system optimization, andthe like, may be applied to any manufacturing system, includingcontinuous, batch, and semi-continuous manufacturing operations. Thepresent invention may be adapted for a single unit operation, a singlemachine, a series of unit operations or machines, a group of related orunrelated machines at a single production facility (plant or mill),groups of production facilities (for all production operations or asubset thereof, such as operations of a single type or for a singleproduct), or for corporate-wide operations for all products or a subsetof products and processes. Exemplary products include cosmetics andtoiletries, health care products, absorbent articles such as diapers orfeminine care products, foods such as baby food or canned goods, paperand tissue products, pharmaceutical products, automobiles, electronicgoods, petrochemicals, agricultural products, wood products, textiles,plastics, and the like. In one embodiment, the PIPE system, includingany of the STORM system, the PipeMap utility, and the PIPE Data logger,may be adapted for products produced under regulatory guidelines such asFDA regulations, and includes audit tools needed for Good ManufacturingPractices (GMP). For example, pertinent data from the PIPE system andother sources may be archived and verified with electronic signatures.Raw materials sources and their certificates of analysis may be recordedelectronically and associated with the materials produced. Informationregarding the recipes, materials, process conditions, crewmembers, andother issues may be electronically recorded and associated with thearchived data for future audits or reviews.

Tracking Delay and Waste

[0087] The PIPE system may be used to track delay and waste, or otherproductivity problems, as well as the apparent causes of those problems.

[0088] As used herein, “delay time” for a machine is any time whenproducts are not being made during a time that was scheduled forproduction of a product. Even if the delay is due to circumstancesoutside the control of the company or plant, such as a shipment of rawmaterials from a vendor that has been delayed due to bad weather or thatwas shipped to the wrong plant due to a clerical error on the part ofthe vendor, the result is still delay of production.

[0089] Whenever a converting line stops, a delay record is created inthe database. The record may include fields such as delay code, delayduration, timestamp, product count, and other information from themachine controller (see FIG. 10A and FIG. 10B).

[0090] In addition to delay data, waste data may also be obtained inmuch the same way. Whenever defective product is culled (e.g., culled inresponse to machine vision sensors in a converting line), a waste recordis created in the database using a waste code, number of defects,timestamp, product count, and other information from the machinecontroller (see FIG. 10A and FIG. 10B).

[0091] In general, waste and delay information, as well as otherproductivity parameters, may be automatically captured on an event basisand stored in the PIPE database.

[0092] Productivity and performance of a machine, plant, or businessunit may be reported using any suitable set of measures. For example,the total available hours for a reporting period (typically taken as 24hours per day multiplied by the number of days in the reporting period)may be reported in terms of several categories, such as:

[0093] Development outages, which may include down time for specialresearch runs;

[0094] Market-driven curtailment, when a machine is taken downdeliberately because of inadequate sales or due to inventory factors;

[0095] Planned asset outages, as approved by manufacturing leadership;

[0096] Planned holiday shutdowns;

[0097] Force majeure, when an uncontrollable event precludes operation,including floods, hurricanes, disruption of energy supply, etc.Catastrophic equipment failure for reasons other than acts of naturewould not normally be included under force majeure.

[0098] The total available hours, minus the sum of any hours fallinginto the five categories immediately above (development outages, etc.)may be taken as the scheduled hours. The delay hours are the totalnumber of hours that the unit is precluded from operating for any reasonduring scheduled hours. The scheduled hours minus the delay hours is theactual hours operated.

[0099] In one embodiment, “preliminary waste data” may also be obtainedand stored by the PIPE system. “Preliminary waste data,” as used herein,refers to data regarding defects encountered or observed duringproduction of an intermediate product in a first process, wherein theintermediate product is intended for use as a raw material in a secondprocess, and wherein the defects did not cause waste in the firstprocess but are likely to cause waste in the second process. Thus, forexample, production of a roll of tissue for use as a barrier material ina diaper may lead to a PIPE table in the PIPE database describing eventsencountered during the production of the tissue, including machinevision or other sensor input pointing to a serious defect in productquality, such as a hole or tear in the web at a particular distance intothe web from the exposed outer end of the roll (e.g., 113 yards from theend of a 200-yard-long rolled web). The problem may not have created aneed for discarding the defective portion of the product, whichcontinued to be wound until the defective region was deep within a largeroll of tissue web ready for use in a diaper line. Thus, no waste ordelay was incurred, but a known problem has been detected in a productquality event that was recorded in the PIPE database for the product.When the product is subsequently used, the PIPE database may again beaccessed to alert the second process and its control system of aposition in the roll having a defect that will need to be eliminated byculling the affected product or culling the respective portion of theweb before it is incorporated into a final product. In other words, PIPEdata during a first process is used for feed-forward control of a secondprocess. The “preliminary waste” of the intermediate product thus becameactual waste in the final product, but with improved control over thesecond process.

[0100] The PIPE data may be correlated with process information andother parameters, such as the nature of the shift or crew, materialproperties of raw materials, season of the year, etc., to better predictcauses of waste and to better align machine operation and the “recipe”for the product being made to ensure the less waste is encountered infuture production efforts.

[0101] In one embodiment, the PIPE system provides a softwareapplication to allow users to view and add comments to the eventrecords. The tools for adding comments may provide a customizable,multi-level menu structure (e.g., machine section, subsection, problem,root cause, action, and comment) for user entry of machine delayreasons. In one embodiment, a neural network system continuallyprocesses event records to mine the database for information that mayallow reduced waste. In another embodiment, a fuzzy logic expert systemscans operator input to check for discrepancies, as well as to suggestimprovements in operation to reduce waste and delay.

[0102] The PIPE system may also assist in identifying the variousapparent causes of delay. For example, when delay is due to forcemajeure that persists for a prolonged period of time, one may recognizethat the problem will persist and alter the schedule of time. In thiscase, one may wish to only count as delay the first time unit in whichthe force majeure occurred, the time unit being chosen as desired fromunits such as a shift of eight hours, a day, or other period of time.

[0103] The PIPE system may also account for down time due to marketcurtailment, wherein the machine has excess capacity due to inadequatecustomer orders, or because inventory of a product is sufficient tosupply customer demands for a period of time without producing moreproduct.

PIPE Fields and Tables

[0104] The PIPE database includes output tables and support tables withfields that specify the machine and numerous aspects of the performanceof a machine or process. The output tables include information obtainedfrom a production event, such as a delay or waste event. Fields that maybe of use in an output table for delay, by way of example, may include:

[0105] Machine Reference—a field identifying the machine

[0106] Timestamp—a field giving the date and time of the event

[0107] Delay Code—a field indicating the nature of a delay, which may berelated to the alarm in a programmable logic controller (PLC) thatcaused the machine to stop. The delay code may be linked to a particularPLC and machine section, and to a particular cause of delay, or thefield may be more general and be coupled with additional fields forsection and details of the delay.

[0108] Delay Trigger—a field indicating whether a delay code was causedby a manual/operator stop.

[0109] Grade Shift—a field indicating when a shift in the grade ofproduction began (or other shifts in production parameters, such asselection of raw materials, if desired), to serve as a reference to aGrade Shift table, as illustrated below.

[0110] Operator comments—a field containing text entered by an operator.Alternatively, this may be stored in a separate table to which a linkmay be established based on the timestamp or other information.

[0111] Duration—the length of a delay

[0112] The output tables may be supported by support tables (lookuptables or maps) that are used to interpret information in the outputtables and provide links to other information in other databases ortables. Support tables provide relatively static information to be usedin conjunction with the active output tables. Support tables may bedeveloped for delay events, waste events, quality problems, and soforth. Exemplary fields in support tables for a delay event may include:

[0113] Delay Code—a field indicating the nature of a delay, which may berelated to the alarm in the PLC that caused the machine to stop.

[0114] Description—a field that contains a brief description of theDelay Code.

[0115] PLC Address—the PLC Address that relates to the Delay Code.

[0116] Section—the section of the machine in which the alarm wasgenerated

[0117] Machine Type—a field indicating the type of machine

[0118] Alarm Source—a field indicating where the alarm originated (whichPLC/processor)

[0119] The choice of how tables are constructed and linked, and whichfields are used, may be the subject of many alternatives known to thoseskilled in the art. The specific examples shown for exemplary purposeshere are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.

[0120] By way of example only, a line of an output table may include thedata shown in Table 1, which indicates what machine is being used, whatcode describes the delay, and when the delay occurred. The table alsoindicates when the current grade began being produced (the Grade ShiftStart time). Many other fields (not shown) may be present as well,including fields indicating what machine components were involved, whichcrew and shift was involved, what product was being made, which recipefile was being used, what corrective actions were taken, who made thecorrective actions, what the machine speed was prior to failure oraveraged during the time since the last event, whether any plannedmaintenance occurred, whether the down time was a scheduled down, etc.Other records may include data or provide links to data from selectedsensors for parameters such as air temperature, humidity, process waterpH, etc., which may be known to be relevant to runnability or quality. Afield for general operator comments may also be included (not shown).TABLE 1 Portion of an Exemplary Delay Table. Machine Ref. Delay CodeTimestamp Duration (sec.) Grade Shift Start U2 257 Sep. 22, 200104:12:48 206 Sep. 22, 2001 03:15:20

[0121] Further, a line of a support table serving as a delay map mayinclude the data shown in Table 2, wherein the meaning of code 257 inthe Delay Code field is given. TABLE 2 Portion of an Exemplary DelayMap. Delay Code Description PLC Address 257 Web break at transfer tofirst B44:16/06 imprinting fabric on tissue machine U2

[0122] The description field may be more generic, such as “Web break attransfer to first imprinting fabric” so that it may be applicable tomore than one machine. It may also be simply “Web break” if the DelayCode were accompanied with additional information in the Delay Table tospecify where the break occurred.

[0123] Additional output and support tables may be used to link theinformation in the Delay Table to other production data. A waste tablemay show waste-related information, similar to that of Table 1 but usingparameters pertaining to waste. A material usage table may indicate whatraw materials were used and in what quantities for each period ofproduction. A Grade Shift table is an output table that may providebasic production information for the grade being produced. For example,an exemplary Grade Shift Table associated with the Delay Table of Table1 is shown in Table 3. The data shown indicate when the grade shiftbegan, what the machine was, which crew of employees ran the machine,how many rolls of product were produced for shipping, how many rollswere discarded as waste, and what the product was (e.g., white facialtissue according to recipe C2). A link between Table 1 and Table 3 ispossible by means of the Grade Shift Start field, which may serve aspointer in the Delay Table to additional information in the Grade ShiftTable. The Grade Shift Start value may be used combination with themachine reference field to serve as a pointer if multiple machines maybe considered. Thus, by looking up the entry in the Grade Shift Tablehaving the same Grade Shift Start field as that recorded for an event ina delay table, details of production information associated with thedelay may be obtained. TABLE 3 Portion of an Exemplary Grade ShiftTable. Grade Shift Start Mach. Ref. Crew # Rolls Waste Count Grade Sep.22, 2001 03:15:20 U2 3 3380 96 White Facial C2

[0124] PIPE data may also provide a continuous time series of machinestate information to show machine status and history before an alarmevent occurs, or to allow tracking of the long-term effects of a processmodification on machine efficiency and modes of operation. The machinestate may be described by a Machine State record in a database, whichmay include labels such as startup, shutdown, thread, acceleration, fullspeed, etc. The state of operation may further be described byinformation from a statistical process control program, which maygenerate associated data to indicate at any point in time if the machinewas operating within specifications or whether it was out of control onone or more variables. Analysis of machine state data and other measuresof productivity in combination with statistical process control data maybe a rich source of information about the interaction betweenstatistical quality control practices and machine productivity.

[0125] Similar fields may be used to describe other events such aswaste, slow downs, process control excursions, quality problems,remedial actions to correct a delay, or other events. For example, anincident of waste on a machine (e.g., the culling of one or moreproducts) may be described by a waste code may be associated with adescription field, a PLC address, a section code, a delay trigger field,a machine type field, and an alarm source.

[0126] If desired, PIPE data may be stored on a server at each plant andbe periodically “rolled up” to the corporate PIPE database. Supporttables or maps may be kept identical across a sector or across thecorporation or other unit. Thus, the support tables or a subset of thesupport tables may be maintained at the corporate level and provided toindividual plants to ensure uniformity. The plants may then ensure thatthe output of their PIPE systems is adapted to comply with theapplicable support tables.

Combining Human and Machine Input

[0127] To fully document the reasons for delay and optionally thecorrective actions taken, the PIPE system allows human input tosupplement machine-generated data for any event. Human-machineinterfaces are often used for the entry of such data. Human input may berequired to explain what the event was or to identify planned correctiveaction. Human input may also be required to validate a possible errorstate detected by a control system, or to select one of severalautomatic responses to a delay problem.

[0128] Human input is subject to many forms of error. For example, ashutdown may be caused by a web break that normally takes 5 minutes tocorrect, after which time an operator may elect to initiate routinemachine maintenance for several hours. The source of the several-hourdelay, when queried by the PIPE system, may be entered simply as “webbreak,” leading to a greatly inflated apparent cost of web breaks in thefinancial reporting for the shift, day, or other period of time in whichthe web break occurred. More accurate financial reporting may be done byensuring that the machine delay is properly identified, such asascribing five minutes of the delay to a web break and the remainingdelay time to routine maintenance.

[0129] For example, if a tissue machine stops due to a web break, whichnormally causes a delay of several minutes, an operator may choose toprolong the down time for other scheduled maintenance that might requirean hour. If the act of maintenance is not properly recorded, the hour ofdelay may be falsely credited to a web break. After a predeterminedperiod of time or after start-up, the PIPE system may then alert theoperator that the down time may have been incorrectly attributed to aweb break, and query if it was prolonged for other reasons, which maythen be recorded. Seemingly erroneous entries may also result in e-mailor other alerts directed to a supervisor for review and correctiveaction or further verification, if needed. Additional operator ormanagement input optionally may be required before the machine isallowed to start again to ensure that proper documentation is provided

[0130] To validate human input in this manner, an expert system may beused. The expert system may include a simple table of rules andresponses to deal with common problems, or may be a more sophisticatedfuzzy logic expert system optionally coupled with a neural network thatlearns over time how the process should perform and what conditions areanomalies.

[0131] Though fuzzy logic and neural networks may be powerful tools indata mining a PIPE database, it is to be understood that any knownstatistical or mathematical technique may be applied to determinecorrelations, find optimum process conditions, predict instabilities orrunnability problems, and the like. Such methods include statisticalanalysis such as regression or time-series analysis, signal processingtechniques such as autocorrelation analysis, etc.

[0132] The expert system may be an intelligent agent to automaticallycheck data integrity as it is recorded in the database, adapted to tagthe record for human intervention if the data was suspect. If a datarecord violated a set of particular rules or was determined to be astatistical anomaly, the agent may flag the record and send e-mail orother communications to appropriate people for intervention. If therecord was found to be in error, it may be manually corrected; if therecord was correct, a tag may be marked in the database to signal to theagent that it had been checked and verified for accuracy.

[0133] The agent may be intelligent in two aspects. First, human expertsmay impart their learning to the agent through a fuzzy-rule-basedinference system. There are many types of errors in a machine processlog that humans may quickly and easily detect upon inspection. Forexample, a machine that made product during a particular day may reportan average machine speed of zero due to a recording error. A personreviewing this record may easily spot this inconsistency. A list ofknown errors and inconsistencies would be compiled into fuzzy if-thenrules, and the agent may automatically navigate a large amount of dataand check the data using the expert-based rules. Second, the agent mayuse a neural network to learn patterns in the data. Deviations fromlearned patterns may be flagged as anomalies. The neural network may betrained with historical data and may be re-trained after a given timeperiod to be updated with the most current process information.

Integration of Data for Multiple Systems

[0134] PIPE data from multiple machines or plants may be integrated andsummarized in a common display or report. Database results from multiplesources may also be sorted or searched in any way desired, such assorting waste data by geographical region and machine type, or searchingfor plants of a certain kind having waste delays in the upper quartile.

[0135] When PIPE is applied to multiple machines or plants for financialreporting of a plant, sector, or other business unit, there may be aneed to obtain useful information from a variety of control systems orhardware and software systems. One useful method for establishingcommunication and common standards between multiple machines and controlsystems is the use of maps that identify the relationship betweenparameters required by PIPE and the data structures employed by thediverse systems communicating with PIPE. Map definitions (e.g., supporttables) may be established by a central supervisor and then downloadedto the respective business units or plants, to ensure that the datatransmitted from the machines at the plants is in the proper fields andformat.

Feed-Forward Control Systems

[0136] When a raw material for use in a process was produced under aPIPE system of the present invention, electronic data in time seriesform about production defects may be available that may be of value fora process control system. For example, during production of a roll ofcover material used in feminine care products, a PIPE system may recordthat defects were observed at two positions in the roll (e.g., at 210meters and 318 meters within a roll of material having a total length of500 meters). The defects may have been associated with a web break andrepresent the location of splices, or they may have been holes or colordefects that did not result in machine delay but were detected asquality problems that may or should result in waste during subsequentmanufacturing. The information about the nature of the defects and theirlocation in the roll is sent to the machine that subsequently processesthe roll as a raw material. A feed forward control system then allowsthe machine to anticipate the problem areas in the roll as they areabout to be fed into the machine or any of its unit operations. Themachine may, in response to the problem supplied by the PIPE system forthe raw material, slow down or invoke a cull to remove potentiallydefective product or initiate other compensating action. Thus, waste maybe predicted at an early stage and the cause may be properly identifiedwhen the material is culled. Through anticipating the problem, theimpact of the defects in the raw material on runnability andproductivity of the machine may be reduced (e.g., web breaks may beavoided, or other machine problems may be averted), while quality of thefinal product is improved.

[0137] Basic information identifying the raw materials used inproduction may be supplemented with detailed information from anelectronic certificate of analysis or other information accessible, forexample, via a license plate system, described hereafter.

[0138] In one embodiment, the feed-forward system employs informationobtained from a subset of PIPE specifically engineered to track rawmaterials (e.g., STORM—System for Tracking Online Raw Materials). STORMenables detailed data about the production history of a material to begenerated during production and stored.

[0139] In another example, in producing a roll of tissue, the STORMsystem may provide the quality attributes of the tissue, including arecord of measured basis weight from a beta-radiation-based scanner orother means as a function of position in the roll, and perhaps a recordof optically detected web defects in the roll, again as a function ofposition in the roll (distance from the end of the roll). The tissue maythen be slitted and converted into multiple smaller rolls for use in adiaper mill, for example. Each slitted roll may have an electronic fileassociated with it indicating the basis weight and presence of defectsas a function of roll position. When the roll is received at the mill,this information may be accessed by scanning a bar code to obtain anidentifier that links to the data file. The raw material data file isaccessed by process control systems for the machine. The system may thenanticipate that a defect may exist at, for example, 47 meters into theroll. The machine speed may be momentarily reduced to either prevent aweb break or to allow the defective portion to more easily be removed,after which full speed may be resume. If a portion of the roll hasinadequate basis weight, that portion may be automatically spliced outby the machine or with the assistance of human operators, followingdirections electronically conveyed in response to the process controlsystem of the present invention.

[0140] In general, STORM or PIPE data for one component (e.g., a rawmaterial or intermediate product), generated by any of the machines usedin the production of that component, may be communicated to othermachines that use the component in manufacturing. The data may be usedto verify quality of the incoming components, to make adjustments to thecomponent (e.g., removing portions with quality problems), or to makeadjustments to the machines using the component. In the latter case,feed forward process control technology may be applied to adjust themachine in anticipation of changes in the component. Other suitableprocess control strategies may be used as well.

[0141] In one embodiment, the improved system may access multipledatabases pertaining to the raw material using the “license plate”described more fully hereafter, in which a “license plate” bar code orother identifier on the material permits access to multiple databases ofinformation pertaining to the materials. In other words, the licenseplate may be a pointer to multiple sources of data. The databases mayhave a common format for easy access to and display of information in aform usable by the manufacturer.

[0142] The problem that is anticipated need not be an absolutelyverified problem, such as an observed defect, but may be one that isonly probable or possible based on a detected event that is known to beassociated with a quality problem (i.e., a deviation in the propertiesof the raw material). For example, based on past experience withmanufacturing a roll good on a first machine, it may have beendetermined through data mining or other procedures that after the firstmachine goes down, the portion of a web being produced that was incontact with a heated section of the first machine when the firstmachine went down may have a 25% probability of being thermally damagedduring the down time, resulting in an increased likelihood that the rawmaterial may fail in a subsequent manufacturing process on a secondmachine. The process conditions for the subsequent manufacturing processemploying the raw material may be temporarily adjusted near the timewhen the portion of the web in question is unwound and enters the secondmachine, in order to decrease the probability that a web break or otherfailure will occur. In this manner, the likelihood of waste or delay ora quality problem can be decreased in a manufacturing process bytemporarily adjusting process conditions responsive to previouslyobtained manufacturing information about a raw material, wherein themanufacturing information is interpreted to indicate an increasedprobability of a quality problem or waste or delay if normal processconditions are maintained during manufacture of a product.

[0143] Temporary adjustments to process conditions that anticipatepossible manufacturing problems due to deviations in the properties of araw material may be done when a batch or unit of the raw material is“sequentially trackable,” meaning that data are available relating oneor more identifiable portions of a raw material (each portion comprisingsubstantially less than 100% of the raw material in this case, such as10% or less, or 2% or less) to manufacturing or material propertyinformation about the one or more portions of the raw material.Sequentially trackable raw materials are typically produced in a knownsequence and, in a subsequent manufacturing process, supplied in a knownsequence that can be related to the sequence of manufacturing. Forexample, roll goods can be sequentially trackable. When roll goods areused as a raw material, they are generally used in the reverse sequencein which they were manufactured (the last portion made is the firstportion used; though in some applications, the first portion made may bethe first portion used). Webs in any form may be sequentially trackable,including cut stacks of web materials, festoons, and the like. Materialsthat are provided in a string or other fixed sequence may also besequentially trackable (e.g., medications sealed in pouches along acontinuous web of aluminum foil). Material in bales, or loose powders orliquids in tanks, or vats generally is not sequentially trackablebecause the material within the batch becomes mixed after production.

[0144] A batch of sequentially trackable raw material may be associatedwith a single identification code (e.g., a single barcode or singleelectronic product code from a smart tag for an entire roll ofmaterials), but the identification code may provide access to sequentialmanufacturing information such as event data in a PIPE database and/orcontinuously monitored process data from any number of process sensorsand other control devices, and the sequential information may then beassociated with various portions of the raw material (e.g., identifyinga basis weight deviation in a roll good at a specified location in theroll).

[0145] A bill of materials for the manufacturing of a product mayspecify or may be consulted to help specify what actions should be takenfor an anticipated temporary deviation in the properties of a rawmaterial. Some deviations of the properties may still permit productionof the product within the targeted specifications for that product,while other deviations may require culling of the products affected bythe deviation in the properties of the raw material, or may requirerejecting the affected portion of the raw material so that it does notenter the machine.

[0146] The above-mentioned feed-forward system or system ofmachine-to-machine communication regarding raw materials and their usein products need not apply to components produced from a singlemanufacturer, but may also apply to any raw material used by amanufacturer, wherein data generated by vendors of the raw materials areobtained and stored for use in manufacturing systems according to thepresent invention.

[0147] Accessing the data may require a connection across a networkinvolving vendor computers. Alternatively, the vendor may electronicallysupply data to a common manufacturer database that may later be accessedthrough the license plate system.

[0148] In another embodiment, probabilistic or “fuzzy” information maybe used for improved feed-forward control. The probabilistic informationmay be obtained by correlations of past machine performance or productquality as a function of PIPE data or raw material data for a componentused in a process. The correlations may indicate that the risk of adelay or quality problem may be greater unless machine conditions aremodified, or may indicate mixed risks and opportunities that may beweighed for the greatest expected economic return. For example, in theproduction of a diaper, correlations of past quality results couldindicate that a statistically significant increase in consumercomplaints about adhesive failure occurred 35% of the time when, eventhough all product specifications were met, when a batch of hot meltadhesive having a molecular weight slightly below target was used,suggesting that an increased amount of adhesive may need to be used tosecure a component, but at a higher cost. However, the PIPE data mayalso show that increasing the application level of adhesive historicallyresults in a 10% increase in down time due to adhesive nozzle plugging,and may indicate that machine runnability improved on the average whenthe low molecular weight adhesive was used. These factors may beassociated with their expected costs and optimized run conditions may besuggested or automatically implemented, optionally subject to humansupervision. In general, the information used for feed-forward controlneed not be data directly describing quality problems or other waste anddelay information pertaining to components of a process, but may beinformation inferred from past PIPE and other data, such asprobabilistic predictions obtained by correlations or neural networkmining of the data to suggest opportunities to be obtained (increasedmachine speed, for example) or possible problems to be avoided orprobabilities of various costs and problems to be weighed in optimizingprocess conditions as the associated materials enter the system.

[0149] Data stored in process information databases such as PIPE enablethe determination of non-obvious cause and effect relationships betweenmanufacturing events. While many events are related in a trivial manner(e.g., a raw material splice will cause some products to be discarded),there exits a real possibility that seemingly non-related events arecorrelated. The more non-obvious a correlation, the less likely it willbe discovered by a machine operator or process engineer. This isespecially true for events that are separated by some temporal distance(i.e., lag). Data mining techniques applied to the process informationdatabases provide an excellent method of uncovering non-obvious yethighly correlated events to suggest process modifications or rawmaterials strategies that offer a probability of improved performance.In addition to finding these cause and effect relationships, processinformation data mining also provides information than may be used forprocess troubleshooting. Exemplary methods for data mining are given inPredictive Data Mining: A Practical Guide by Sholom M. Weiss and NitinIndurkhya (San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 1997), ISBN1-55860-403-0. Data mining may be done according to CRISP-DM standardsin “CRISP-DM 1.0: Step-by-step Data Mining Guide” by P. Chapman et al.Exemplary software tools for data mining include EDM (EnterpriseData-Miner) and DMSK (Data-Miner Software Kit), both available fromData-Miner Pty Ltd (Five Dock, Australia). Any known data visualizationor pattern detection tool may also be applied, such as the OMNIVIZsoftware system of OmniViz, Inc. (Maynard, Mass.).

Electronic “License Plate” Embodiments

[0150] In one embodiment, the PIPE system is adapted for use with amaterials tracking system analogous to the use of license plates forautomobiles, where a single code (the license plate ID) may be used touniquely identify an object such as an automobile and its owner, or, inthe present invention, a raw material lot. Just as a license plate on anautomobile may be used to identify its owner and thus to accessinformation from multiple databases pertaining to the owner, so may anelectronic license plate uniquely identify a batch or lot of a rawmaterial and thereby allow access to one or more databases ofinformation pertaining to the raw material. The data accessible by meansof the electronic license plate (e.g., upon scanning a bar codeincluding the electronic license plate identifier) may include the PIPEdata associated with the manufacturing process in which the raw materialwas used.

[0151] In past procedures for handling raw materials in the productionof an article, a label with one or more bar codes is typically appliedto a container or to the material itself to provide information aboutthe source and properties of the material. Those using the material inmanufacturing scan the bar code to extract information. Multiple scansare often needed to extract information from multiple bar codes on alabel, such as bar codes for manufacturer item number, vendor lotnumber, and quantity. The information provided by the labels to themanufacturer is limited and may be inefficient to use.

[0152] In the improved method for handling and tracking raw materials,according to the present invention, the “license plate” concept permitsintegration of data from multiple vendors or, more generally, from thesources of multiple materials used in a product. Instead of bar codesproviding a small amount of data that must be scanned multiple times, a“license plate” code or other identifier on the material permits accessto multiple databases of information pertaining to the materials. Inother words, the electronic license plate may be a pointer to multiplesources of data. The databases may have a common format for easy accessto and display of information in a form usable by the manufacturer.

[0153] In another analogy, the “license plate” code of the new method isto a conventional bar code as a hypertext link on a web page is toconventional printed text. The “electronic license plate” code mayprovide access to all the information of a conventional bar code, butadditionally may provide for rapid electronic access to vendor databasesor other databases giving detailed information about the material. Suchinformation may include electronic certificates of analysis, such asthose generated by the Supplier Data Management System (seecommonly-owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/253200, “SupplierData Management System,” filed Sep. 23, 2001, previously incorporatedherein by reference), and the associated tables of material propertiesand quality statistics. Such information may further include informationabout quality control during manufacturing (e.g., data from a processcontrol system or other quality parameters and time-series of raw data),the materials used in producing the material, operating parameters(target and actual), etc. Thus, for each pallet, roll good, raw materialsource, or intermediate product from the beginning to the end ofproduction, there would be quality attributes, production history, andother information that may be tracked and linked to manufacturing eventsand final product quality.

[0154] The license plate code may be provided in an optically scannablebar code or other optically scannable marks such as compressed symbologymarks that may be read by a charge-coupled-device (CCD) video camera orother optical scanning means. For example, the “QR Code” (Quick ResponseTwo-Dimensional Code) of Toyota Central R&D Laboratories, Inc.(Nagakute, Japan) may be used. Another form of a compressed symbologysystem is the DATAMATRIX of RVSI Acuity CiMatrix (Canton, Mass.).Related scanning equipment includes the DMx AutoID fixed positionscanner, the MXi hand-held scanner, and the Hawkeye 30 hand-heldscanner, all available from RVSI Acuity CiMatrix. The compressedsymbology mark may be printed directly on an exposed surface of aproduct or on the core of a roll good, a pallet or wrap, and so forth,or may be printed on an adhesive label that is affixed to the rawmaterial or associated packaging. The marking need not be visible to thehuman eye, but may comprise an ink that fluoresces in ultraviolet (UV)light, for example, or the marking may be covered with a coating thatstill permits scanning of the underlying marking.

[0155] The identification code may be conveyed by other electronic meanssuch as radio signals (including ultra-wide band signals), and readableelectronic storage devices such as smart cards, electronic chips, ormagnetic storage media. In one embodiment, a package or shipment of araw material is labeled with smart tags that may emit a radio signalcarrying an electronic code which may either directly convey informationabout the raw materials, or provide an identifying code, which may beused to retrieve information about the raw materials in a database. Thecode on the smart tag may be read by a scanner, which may be a portabledevice that is brought near to the smart tag to obtain a reading, or thereader may be a stationary device, which reads the smart tags as theyare brought to the reader. An electronic product code comprising thelicense plate code may be read by the scanner with a readable rangetypically on the order of a few feet, though broader or narrower rangesare possible.

[0156] RFID smart tag technology is known and understood by thoseskilled in the art, and a detailed explanation thereof is not necessaryfor purposes of describing the method and system according to thepresent invention. Generally, conductive or passive smart tags consistof a semiconductor, a coiled, etched, or stamped antennae, a capacitor,and a substrate on which the components are mounted or embedded. Aprotective covering is typically used to encapsulate and seal thesubstrate. Inductive or passive smart tags have been introduced byMotorola under the name “BiStatix”. A detailed description of theBiStatix device may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,259,367 B1. Anothercommercial source of suitable smart tags is Alien Technology Corporationof Morgan Hill, Calif., under the technology name FSA (FluidicSelf-Assembly). With the FSA process, tiny semi-conductor devices areassembled into rolls of flexible plastic. The resulting “smart”substrate may be attached or embedded in a variety of surfaces. Thesmart tag technology under development at the Auto-ID Center atMassachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Mass.) may also beused within the scope of the present invention. Further information onsmart tags and related technology is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No.6,451,154, “RFID Manufacturing Concepts,” issued Sep. 17, 2002 to Grabauet al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,354,493, “System and Method for Finding aSpecific RFID Tagged Article Located in a Plurality of RFID TaggedArticles,” issued Mar. 12, 2002 to Mon; PCT publication WO 02/48955,published Jun. 20, 2002; U.S. Pat. No. 6,362,738, “Reader for Use in aRadio Frequency Identification System and Method,” issued Mar. 26, 2002to Vega; D. McFarlane, “Auto-ID Based Control,” White Paper for theAuto-ID Centre Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge,Cambridge, United Kingdom, Feb. 1, 2002; and Chien Yaw Wong,“Integration of Auto-ID Tagging System with Holonic ManufacturingSystems,” White Paper for the Auto-ID Centre Institute forManufacturing, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom,September 2001.

[0157] Other RFID technologies believed to be of value for the presentinvention include the I*CODE chips and readers of Philips Semiconductor(Eindhoven, The Netherlands); the RFID tags of Sokymat (Lausanne,Switzerland); and the RFID technology of Texas Instruments (Dallas,Tex.) including their TI*RFID systems.

[0158] Gemplus (Gemenos, France) provides smart tags (sometimes called“smart labels”) and smart cards employing RFID technology, which may beused as smart tags. They also market interfaces, antennas, scanners andsoftware that may be adapted for use with smart tags.

[0159] With RFID or other smart tag technology, a vendor may associate aunique ID code with a batch of raw materials, and enter physicalproperty data into a database in which the data is associated with theID code. When the raw material shipment is received, an RFID scanner mayautomatically scan the RFID chip and retrieve the associated informationfrom the database, verify that usable raw material has been received atthe correct facility, provide quality information to be associated withthe PIPE database, and so forth.

[0160] It is to be understood that many other technologies are potentialsubstitutes for the RFID embodiments disclosed herein. For example, RFIDreaders could be replaced with optical scanners, image analysis devices,arrays of chemical detection devices, and the like to allow othertechnologies for reading identification means to be applied.

[0161] A related technology within the scope of the present invention isSurface Acoustic Wave (SAW) technology. For example, InfoRay (Cambridge,Mass.) markets a passive smart tag that is said to achieve long ranges(up to 30 meters) using a Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) device on a chipcoupled with an antenna. The SAW device converts a radio signal to anacoustic wave, modulates it with an ID code, then transforms it toanother radio signal that is emitted by the smart tag and read by ascanner. The ID code of the smart tag is extracted from the radiosignal. RFSAW, Inc. (Dallas, Tex.) also provides minute Surface AcousticWave (SAW) RFID devices that may be used within the scope of the presentinvention.

[0162] Ultra-wide band (UWB) technology is related, in that it permitswireless communication between objects using low-power electromagnetictransmissions. However, receivers and transmitters generally are bothactive but use very low power, typically less than that of radiofrequency noise, relying on intermittent pulses which cover a broad bandof frequencies rather than transmissions of a particular frequency. UWBtechnology may provide much higher spatial capacity (informationtransmission per unit area) than other wireless standards such asBLUETOOTH brand computer communication services or Institute ofElectronics and Electrical Engineering (IEEE) 802.11a or 802.11b.

[0163] The license plate system may be integrated with the STORM systemwithin PIPE. The system may be structured to support multiple convertinglines in multiple plants as an enterprise information system.

[0164] In one example, when a shipment is received at a warehouse, aworker or electronic device scans the license plate code and then aworker observes a computer screen. The screen displays what the materialis, who the supplier is, when it was shipped, etc., and optionally maydisplay a certificate of analysis showing its suitability for use in theintended process. The scanned identifier provides access to one or moreadditional databases that may be accessed immediately by the operator,as needed, or later as part of an audit. For example, operators usingthe material may access manufacturing history information or productquality information to troubleshoot the use of the material. Informationmay be archived as part of a GMP system.

[0165] In one embodiment, to effectively implement the license platesystem, the vendors or others whose data will be accessed provide thedata in a common format according to the parameters that are needed bythe manufacturer. Thus, particular data fields and their units may bespecified to establish a common format, as well as other format aspectsof the database.

[0166] Accessing the data may require a connection across a networkinvolving vendor computers. Alternatively, the vendor may electronicallysupply data to a common manufacturer database that may later be accessedthrough the license plate system.

[0167] In one embodiment, the electronic license plate for a rawmaterial is scanned and used to access a database providing links totables in other databases containing information about the raw material.As the raw material is used in a manufacturing process, a new entry in adatabase is created (or a former data record is supplemented) to containa link to PIPE data for the manufacturing process, or to contain a copyof all or part of the PIPE data itself. Then, long after the rawmaterial has been used, subsequent users may retrieve information aboutthe raw material and the performance of the manufacturing process inwhich it was used. This linkage of PIPE data with raw material data viaa raw material license plate may allow analysis of the manufacturingdata to be done to correlate raw material properties with productivity.For example, data mining with a neural network or any other known datamining method may be used after the fact to determine relationshipsbetween raw material properties or sources of origin and productivity onmachines or in processes using the raw material. It may be found, forexample, a polyolefin having a molecular weight falling within the lowerend of the acceptable range, per current specifications, results in 10%more down time in a meltblown operation than similar materials having ahigher molecular weight, also in the acceptable range. Such data miningefforts may then lead to a revised raw material specification to improvematerial properties.

[0168] In another embodiment, the raw material property data provided bya vendor are combined (either by copying of data or providing links tothe data) with PIPE data for production of an intermediate product, andthen made available for feed-forward process control of a second processfor manufacture of a final product.

[0169] In practice, the license plate ID number may include two parts, avendor code assigned by the manufacturer to the vendor, and anadditional batch code created by the vendor to identify the batch of rawmaterial (e.g., a roll of material, a barrel of fluid, a bale, or otherunit). The batch code may be further subdivided. For example, the vendorcode may include a predetermined number of bits, such as 16 bits. Thebatch code may include another predetermined number or variable numberof bits, such as 12, 16, 24, or 32. A 24-bit batch code and a 16-bitvendor code may be combined into a single 40-bit license plate codeprovided as a bar code or other scannable code (includingmachine-readable Roman numerals or alpha-numeric symbols, or anotherscript such as simplified Chinese characters or Arabic script).

[0170] By allowing the vendor to create a license plate identification,based on a manufacturer-supplied vendor code and a vendor-supplied batchcode, the efficiency of handling raw materials is improved. In pastpractice, manufacturers often would add their own label to a batch ofmaterial for tracking its use and properties, in spite of a label havingalready been applied from the vendor. Two or more labels may have beenscanned and processed in such operations, with data associated with eachlabel being substantially disconnected. The license plate system of thepresent invention allows a single label to serve the needs of the vendorand manufacturer, providing access for the manufacturer to all neededdata and providing means for tracking the performance of the rawmaterial in subsequent manufacturing processes through connection to thePIPE database. Double labeling or the scanning of plural bar codes for asingle batch of product is no longer needed, according to severalembodiments of the present invention.

[0171] For intelligent manufacturing, smart tags or UWB systems may beadapted for other uses as well, such as automating the tracking ofpositions of machine components and correlating portions of a movingdevice such as a belt or wire with production problems. For example,microscopic smart tags may be embedded at various locations in apapermaking fabric, and an RFID reader in a papermaking machine couldmonitor which portion of the fabric is contact with a paper web as theweb passes through a nip, enters a dryer, or is transferred to a Yankeecylinder, for example. Fabric position could be entered into a PIPEdatabase when there is waste and delay, and a fuzzy logic analyzer orknown statistical tools could then be applied to look for correlationsbetween fabric position and various runnability or quality controlissues. For example, PIPE data may indicate that web breaks at thecreping blade are 50% more likely for tissue that had been in contactwith the seam portion of a papermaking fabric, and steps may then betaken to improve the seam region of the fabric or to momentarily reduceweb tension when tissue that contact a seamed region is about to reeledfrom the Yankee. Alternatively, tracking of the position of airfeltforming drums or other moving components in an absorbent articleproduction facility may be combined with PIPE data to determine ifparticular portions of a moving system are more subject to waste anddelay problems, thereby signaling the need for corrective actions suchas repairs or modification of production methods.

[0172] Embedded smart tags in wires, belts, or other machine componentsmay also be used to identify incipient failure or degraded performancedue to wear or other mechanical problems. The incipient problem may bedetected by the loss or failure of the smart tag, such that theinability of a scanner to read a smart tag at a particular location(e.g., the absence of the signal generated by a functioning smart tag)is the signal that a problem or other undesirable process condition hasoccurred or may occur soon. For example, a smart tag embedded in a drivebelt may be lost when the belt becomes worn and is in need ofreplacement, providing a silent or passive signal that heavy wear hasoccurred. The degree of wear in many moving and stationary parts may becontinuously monitored in this manner, and information about missingsmart tags in such parts may be converted to estimates of wear or othermeasures of machine condition, and this data may be archived andincluded with or associated with process event data in the PIPEdatabase.

[0173] Further, all operations with bar codes may be replaced with smarttags or UWB identification devices. For example, instead of using a barcode to identify a batch of raw material shipped to a productionfacility in a supplier data management system, a smart tag embedded in athe raw material or the raw material packaging could be automaticallyread when the raw material is received at the production facility, andthe electronic product code generated could either uniquely identify theraw material, allowing links to online material property attributes anda certificate of analysis to be accessed, or the smart tag could beprogrammed to contain the needed information, such as MSDS data, anelectronic certificate of analysis, purchase order information, and thelike. Intermediate materials such as nonwoven webs in roll form may beforwarded to the next operation with an identifying smart tag in thecore of the roll which may contain provide a unique identifying code forthe roll, which in turn may be uniquely paired with a URL or databaseaddress from which information about the production of the material maybe made available for feed forward control during manufacturing. Forexample, the location of a splice in the role may be indicated, allowingequipment to adjust speed and tension appropriately during use of thematerial to prevent a break when the splice is unwound and entersproduction.

[0174] In addition, bills of materials may be automatically checked byverifying that proper raw materials have been loaded, based on RFIDscanners reading smart tags of the raw materials as they are loaded foruse in production. Inventory management may also be simplified by usingUWB transmitters or smart tags to track the physical location of rolls,pallets, or boxes of materials in a warehouse or other facility. WithUWB devices, triangulation of an emitted signal may permit location ofits source, much as in GPS systems. With RFID technology, scanners anddetectors may read and record the location of numerous products in astorage facility, either by passing a scanner through the facility or byhaving multiple scanners in the facility that detect objects within ashort distance of the scanner. In addition, smart chips or UWB devicesworn or carried by the operators may be used in lieu of a paperchecklist to record the completion of general housekeeping duties,machine health checks, or other actions required by Good ManufacturingPractices.

[0175] In another embodiment, smart chips or UWB devices worn or carriedby operators may be used to track and record actions of specificoperators. For example, a smart tag identifying an operator may be readby the various input and control devices associated with an EWMA systemor other HMI (human-machine interface) systems (e.g., a distributedcontrol system) to verify the identity of the operator. If the operatorenters a restricted area or physically modifies a portion of themachine, RFID readers in certain locations of interest may track thephysical presence of the operator and may associate that operator withchanges made to the machine during that time and in that location, forpossible subsequent troubleshooting or problem solving analysis.

[0176] By way of example, RFID tag and RFID readers, under the nameIntellitag 500, may be purchased from Intermec Technologies Corporationof Everett, Wash., and Intermec's Amtech Systems Division inAlbuquerque, N. Mex., or the RFID reader may be a Commander 320 13.56MHz RFID reader, manufactured by Texas Instruments of Dallas, Tex. Otherautomatic identification and object tracking systems may be used such asRF SAW (radio frequency surface acoustic wave) technology from RF SAW,Inc. (Dallas, Tex.).

PIPE and a Bill of Materials System

[0177] The productivity of a machine or plant may be improved with anautomated Bill of Materials (BOM) system in which “recipes” or otherproduct specifications are used to govern machine operation and rawmaterials acceptance for a targeted product. These recipes, which areavailable in electronic form, are used to identify the correctcombinations of processes and materials that are needed for variousproducts and to automatically ensure that the incoming raw materials andmachine settings are appropriate. Information in the form of bar codesor other means may be used to track the components and their attributesto ensure the recipe was properly followed. Various components may beauthenticated and their interchangeability may be known and properlyaccounted for when replacement materials were needed. In one embodiment,the bill of materials includes at least one specification formanufacturing a product (e.g., a machine setting or a materialspecification).

[0178] For example, before a raw material at a plant is loaded orotherwise used in a process for the manufacture of a product, the barcode of the material may be scanned to obtain information about the rawmaterial, including information from a license plate system whichprovides pointers to various databases based on a single identificationcode for the batch of raw material, or information from an electroniccertificate of analysis. The raw material information is compared withthe current product's bill of materials (recipe). A message is returnedand displayed indicating whether the material is valid or invalid forits intended use. When an incorrect material has been selected for usein the process, the PIPE system (or, in more particular embodiments, thePIPE Event Logger, or, most specifically, the event logger module of thePIPE Event Logger) may shut down the machine or process until thecorrect material is loaded, or until an authorized and justifiedoverride is applied, wherein the reason for the override (e.g., ajustification) may be required to be entered for auditing purposes(e.g., as an override code).

[0179] In one embodiment, a control system such as control system 54 inFIG. 1, in cooperative association with the PIPE Event Logger 58 and anID reader 50 for raw materials, functions as the BOM system describedherein. In such an embodiment, the control system obtains the bill ofmaterials for a product, obtains data associated with at least onematerial input to the process, and compares the obtained data with theobtained bill of materials. If the obtained data exceeds a presetthreshold identified in the bill of materials or is otherwise invalid,the control system invokes a setting change or other modification of theprocess to prevent waste and/or delay. For example, the control systemmay disable the machine associated with the process.

[0180] The BOM system may be integrated with the STORM system (Systemfor Tracking Online Raw Materials) of PIPE and may support multiplemanufacturing or converting lines in multiple plants as part of anenterprise information system. The BOM system may access data fromelectronic “license plates,” or pointers to one or more databasesproviding information about the material in question. The BOM system mayalso be integrated or used in conjunction with a Supplier DataManagement System that generates electronic certificates of analysis forincoming raw materials.

[0181] Each product may have a standard recipe available in electronicformat from a database. The recipe specifies what raw materials areneeded (e.g., material type, characteristics, etc.) and may specify howthey are to be used. When a material is brought into the productionline, it may be scanned or a material code may be entered, and softwaremay then access specifications for the material and compare it to therecipe. If there is not a suitable match, the machine may be shut downuntil the correct raw materials are provided. Optionally, the recipe mayprovide directions for machine settings (speed, temperature, etc., ofvarious devices) and may automatically invoke machine changes or, ifdesired, require employees to make the appropriate adjustments.

[0182] Accessing the data may require a connection across a networkinvolving vendor computers. Alternatively, the vendor may electronicallysupply data to a common manufacturer database that may later be accessedthrough the license plate system.

[0183] When the recipe demands are met by the incoming raw materials,the machine is allowed to operate and an electronic record is created tospecify the starting materials used and the production history for therun. PIPE data are continually created in the process as the machineoperates. All details of raw materials and their correspondence tospecified guidelines may be recorded and archived to provide an audittrail for GMP compliance.

[0184] During grade transitions, the BOM system can compare presentlyloaded raw materials with those of the Bill of Materials for the newgrade and determine what changes are needed. The BOM system can also beadapted to improve performance of a process during grade changes. Inmany manufacturing systems, there are multiple raw materials that mustbe changed when a product grade is changed. Some raw material changescan be as simple as taking a roll of material off a spindle andreplacing it with a new roll, or switching a valve to change a chemicalsprayed onto a product, but in some cases there may be tanks or lengthsof piping filled with a previous raw material or product of a previousraw material which may require time to be flushed out with a new rawmaterial (or product of a new raw material) before the system can fullymeet the specifications for the new grade, resulting in lost productionor production of lower grade product. The BOM system can be adapted tooptimize grade changes by including recipes for intermediate productsthat can be produced during the transition from one grade to another.For example, a transition from a red-colored pasta grade to agreen-colored pasta grade may result in off-color product made duringthe transition from red to green, but there may be a marketable“transition” product in which color of the pasta is not important. Thetransition product may be produced with reduced waste during thetransition. To be marketable, the transition product made during thetransition may require adjustment in other ingredients or processconditions that have a faster response time (or flush time) than the rawmaterial lines that need to be changed to achieve the targeted gradechange. Thus, a transitional bill of materials can be specified to allowa marketable product to be made during a grade transition requiring araw material change in which other raw materials may be temporarilychanged during the transition to achieve a marketable intermediateproduct. Transitional bills of materials may be predetermined for avariety of grade transitions, or may be determined by an expert systemor by optimization of costs considering the various alternative rawmaterials that may be acceptable for a new targeted grade and a proposedtransition product, as well as considering the quantities of rawmaterials from a previous grade that are currently in place and thecosts of changing the previous raw materials. In some cases, forexample, it may be more cost effective to continue producing excessproduct to use up a raw material rather than to have to remove theremaining raw material to prepare for an immediate grade change.

[0185] The PIPE and BOM systems may record the transition events (e.g.,end and beginning of a run), record the recipes used (e.g., initialrecipe, recipe for the targeted new grade, and the transition recipe),and provide information to indicate the rationale for the transitionproduct and the intended use (e.g., donated goods, internal corporateuse, external customer, and the like). A human operator or supervisormay be prompted for approval to adapt a transition bill of materials.The prompt may include automatically generated information about theproposed quantity of intermediate product to make and the intendedcustomer, the costs (including waste and delay) associated with making atransition product as opposed to a conventional direct grade change, andother information needed to make an informed decision regarding thegrade change.

Audit Logs

[0186] The PIPE system may include means for modifying PIPE data andaudit means to document information regarding edited data. For example,a utility known as PipeMap may allow an authorized user to view andmodify data. Data integrity may be maintained by requiring that anymodification be documented and justified with added comments, and bypreventing the deletion or modification of data that would disruptrelationships between tables and databases associated with the recordsbeing modified. When PIPE is adapted to multiple plants (manufacturingfacilities), an authorized user of PipeMap may access a list of plantsand, for each plant, a list of available tables. The plants may befurther categorized as a function of sector, business unit, division, orcorporation when the system spans the operations of more than onecorporate entity.

[0187] Tables that may be changed/updated may require an audit record tobe created and stored in an audit table in order to meet auditrequirements from external regulatory agencies (e.g., the Food and DrugAdministration of the United States) or general Good ManufacturingPractices. Through the audit log, changes to data values, date/time ofchange, and ID and name of person performing the changes may bedocumented and archived. These records may be viewed in the audit logwithin PipeMap and may allow the user to see if records have beenmodified or deleted. In addition the audit logs may apply a secure,computer generated, timestamp to the changed record and audit trail.

[0188] Database triggers may handle auditing of the various tables. Forexample, audit triggers may be SQL Server database table procedures thatexecute every time there is a specific action on a table, such as achange. They may be broken into multiple elements for each tablerequiring an audit trail. For example, there may be Update and Deletetriggers that will monitor the table to be audited for the respectiveaction. As modifications take place, the trigger may obtain all of therecord's previous information and add a transaction date and transactiontype to the audit table record. User comments may also be stored andtracked.

[0189] Where the data originates may dictate where the data may bechanged. The PipeMap utility may be adapted to allow map tables to onlybe changed at the corporate level. PipeMap may also be adapted to allowplant production tables (tables of data from a particular plant) in thePIPE database to only be changed at the plant level (by authorized plantpersonnel). Thus, a user viewing production data with the PipeMaputility may find certain fields are unchangeable.

[0190] The STORM system for tracking raw materials may follow differentstandards. Map tables (lookup tables) for material types, consumptionlocations, and so forth may best be editable at a sector or corporatelevel, while tables for materials, bill of materials (the recipe for aproduct), vendor locations, and so forth may be editable at a plantlevel.

Setpoint Management

[0191] Many products are produced with a wide range of attributes, suchas tissue with different colors, print patterns, topical additives, andso forth, or diapers having different sizes. A change in the grade for aproduct generally requires a variety of different process settings to beadjusted according to a recipe for that grade. Setpoint changes or othersetting changes may be tracked and recorded in an audit table that ispart of or linked to PIPE data such that the setpoints used for anyparticular production run may be associated with the products forsubsequent analysis or for providing documentation needed for regulatorycompliance. Software systems may be used to track and record currentsetpoints and to update recipes when new or experimental setpoints arefound to offer improvements.

[0192] Other features for managing machine settings may include theability to maintain multiple sets of settings. One set may betentatively deemed as the “best settings” for a grade. Current settingsat any time may be captured and compared to the “best settings,” and thecurrent settings may be archived for later reference. When new settingsare found to be superior or required due to changes in raw materials orequipment, they may be uploaded as the new “best settings” for thatgrade of product. Process control settings may be downloaded on demand,especially after PLC replacement or software updates, when settings mayneed to be restored.

Use of PIPE with Other Software, Including Neural Networks/ExpertSystems

[0193] The PIPE system or other systems of the present invention may beintegrated with any suitable Human Manufacturing Interface (HMI),supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system, or distributedcontrol system (DCS), including those provided by Wonderware Corp.(Irvine, Calif.), Rockwell International (Milwaukee, Wis.) and itssubsidiary, Allen-Bradley, Honeywell (Morristown, N.J.), HortonAutomation (Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada), and the like. Forexample, WONDERWARE brand manufacturing and process controloperator-machine interface software for plant operations or the RSView32SCADA/HMI package of Rockwell International may be integrated with PIPEand may send measured process parameters to the PIPE Event Logger, forexample, as well as be adapted to display reports derived from the PIPEdatabase for viewing by plant personnel or corporate personal via aclient server. The PIPE system or other systems of the present inventionmay be adapted to be part of or cooperate with the integratedmanufacturing system of U.S. Pat. No. 5,311,438, “IntegratedManufacturing System,” issued May 10, 1994 to Sellers et al.,incorporated herein by reference, or with any suitable related systems,including those of Rockwell International, Microsoft Corp., and othervendors.

[0194] The systems of the present invention may be incorporated into orlinked with other suitable software systems such as electronic datainterchange (EDI) systems and SAP brand software, or integrated withquality control systems and with computer-integrated manufacturingsystems in general, including those described by J. Ashayeri et al. in“Computer-Integrated Manufacturing in the Chemical Industry,” Production& Inventory Management Journal, vol. 37, no. 1, First Quarter 1996, pp.52-57. The systems of the present invention may be integrated withSAP/R3 systems. Interfacing of custom software with SAP/R3 systems isdescribed by B. Yeager in “Mead's ERP System Integrates ‘Best of Breed’Software,” PIMA's North American Papermaker, vol. 82, no. 4, April 2000,p. 36. For example, encapsulation of custom software, such as any PIPEor STORM component, may occur within SAP brand software using SAP brandsoftware interface programs, called “BAPIs” (business applicationprogramming interfaces), which use Microsoft Corp.'s COM/DCOMconnectors, allowing a Microsoft-based client to communicate with SAPR/3. Such connectors may be built using ACTIVEX brand technologies byMicrosoft Corp. and COM/DCOM strategies. For raw materials handling,suitable certificate of analysis generation tools may also be adapted,including the Proficy Certificate of Analysis Wizard, which is anACTIVEX brand control. Other aspects of applying a SAP brand softwaresystem for use with the present invention are disclosed by O. Wieser in“Integration of Process Control Systems and Laboratory InformationSystems Into the Logistic Chain,” Automatisierungstechnische Praxis,vol.39, no.2, February 1997, pp. 26-28.

[0195] In one embodiment, a PIPE system (including STORM) may beintegrated with commercial quality control software, such as TRAQ-1Quality Data Management System of the Gibson-Graves Company, Inc. Thissoftware (compatible with VAX brand computers and peripheral apparatus)assists in the management of quality assurance information. This systemoffers SPC (statistical process control) capability, as well as a rangeof data entry, analysis, graphics and reporting features. It providescontrol for raw materials, process, and finished products. There arespecific modules for tracking and reporting of defective materials andreturned goods, certificates of analysis, and vendor analysis. Thesystem also provides full database query and reporting capabilities.Graphical output includes control charts, histograms, Pareto charts,cusum charts, x-y correlations, etc. DBQ (Database for Quality) brandcomputer software from Murphy Software may also be coupled with thesystems of the present invention.

[0196] Another system that may be adapted for the present invention isthe E-COMPLIANCE brand computer software system (hereafter TeC) ofTaratec (Bridgewater, N.J.), as described in “Taratec Develops NewSolution to Help Life Sciences Industry Comply with FDA Regulation,” PRNEWSWIRE, Jan. 16, 2001. This system enables data and file management tobe controlled in a secure repository that supports the requirements of21 CFR Part 11. It allows security for all information to be maintainedthrough Access Control Lists (ACLs), which provide the flexibility togrant access as required while protecting files against accidentalmodification or unauthorized access. TeC also allows users withappropriate permission to update individual files while maintainingcopies of the original record and all subsequent versions. Secure audittrails capture information including date of modification, who modifiedthe file, and why the file was changed. TeC is said to be able tointegrate into most existing computer systems and is non-invasive todata sources or applications. Systems supported include laboratoryinstrument data collection applications, data entry applications, andelectronic batch records systems as well as MICROSOFT brand Excelspreadsheets and MICROSOFT brand Word files. Accessible through a webbrowser, TeC stores all files, from raw data to Certificates ofAnalysis, in a secure, central location with a full audit trail.Building on an Oracle8i platform (Oracle Corporation), TeC provides thesecurity and reliability of a Relational Database Management System(RDBMS) along with ease of use associated with standard file systems.

[0197] Vendor inventory management systems may be used, in which arequest for more material is automatically generated as stores of thematerial are depleted. Related concepts are described by C. Reilly,“Buyers to Suppliers: Manage My Inventory,” Purchasing, vol.129, no. 1,Jul. 13, 2000, p. 76 c. 39.

[0198] In one embodiment, a web-based version of the PIPE system(particularly reporting features for PIPE) may incorporate XQuery, anXML query language, as described by C. Babcock, “The Ask Master: An XMLTechnology Makes Retrieving Web Data Much Easier,” Interactive Week,Sep. 24, 2001, p. 48. An XQuery system, for example, may query arelational database such as a product specifications database, as wellas electronic data provided via web pages or e-mail, incorporating datafrom several sources into a single XML document or web page. In anotherembodiment, Active Server Pages (ASP) may be used in cooperativerelationship with an SQL server.

[0199] The rich and expansive body of process data obtainable with PIPEsystems is well suited for analysis and data mining by a variety oftechniques, including neural networks/expert systems and data analysisemploying fuzzy logic. For example, PIPE may be adapted for use with theneural network/expert system described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,467,“Neural Network/Expert System Process Control System and Method,” issuedJun. 9, 1992 to Skeirik, herein incorporated by reference, or in WO00/20939, “Method and System for Monitoring and Controlling aManufacturing System,” published Apr. 13, 2000 by J. D. Keeler et al.,the U.S. equivalent of which was filed Oct. 6, 1998, and is hereinincorporated by reference. Other useful publications include thefollowing publications: Tacker et al., “A Fuzzy Logic Neural SystemApproach to Signal Processing in Large Scale Decision System”, 1989 IEEEConf. on Sys. Man. & Cybernetics, pp. 1094-97; and Hillman, “IntegratingNeural Nets and Expert Systems”, Al Exper., June 1990, pp. 54-59. Suchneural networks and expert systems may play a role in the control of thesystem using rules learned by the neural network and in generating rulesto guide the administration of the process (e.g., optimizing the use ofcrews, adjusting recipes to improve product yield or machineproductivity, etc.).

[0200] More particularly, neural networks and expert systems may be usedto identify factors that are associated with increased delay or lowermachine productivity in general. For example, a neural network mayanalyze PIPE data and determine that increased delay time from aparticular cause of delay is associated with the use of replacementparts from one of several vendors, with an interaction between aparticular crew and a particular product grade, or with certain rawmaterial properties in association with an attempt to increase machinespeed to an above average state. Identification of such factors may leadto creation of a new rule for production of the product, an alterationto the standard “recipe,” to eliminate the source of delay.

Optimization Using PIPE Data

[0201] PIPE data from multiple machines and mills may be analyzed todetermine factors that allow one machine or mill to have higher qualityor production rates in order to suggest improvements for otheroperations. For example, mining of PIPE data may show that whenever MillA uses raw material from supplier B for product C, machine breaks areunusually low. A suggestion may then be generated asking a manager inMill D to consider testing raw material from supplier B for product C aswell, giving a prediction of the expected reduction in down time. Ifsuch a trial is run, the results may be integrated with PIPE to validateor reject the hypothesis. The process of mining data to proposeimprovements for a given machine or for other machines may be done by aLearning Module, which may be directed by human input as to what typesof problems to investigate (e.g., finding optimum process conditions forselected grades or machines, finding synergy between machine componentsand process conditions, etc.).

[0202] PIPE data may be incorporated in optimization routines todetermine optimum scheduling of maintenance when a process problem isencountered. As with any other optimization procedure within the scopeof the present invention, any known optimization strategy may be used.For example, Linear Programming (LP) may be used, as well as MixedInteger Programming (MIP), genetic algorithms, neural networks,nonlinear programming (e.g., successive linear programming ordistributed recursion) and the like.

[0203] Integration of the PIPE system with maintenance schedulingsystems may allow maintenance schedules to be adjusted to reduce overalldown time. For example, when a part failure occurs that has taken anaverage of 4 hours to repair in the past, based on past PIPE data, and a6-hour down time is scheduled within a few days for routine maintenance,a message may be automatically generated by a module in the integratedPIPE system or mill control system to suggest that the future scheduledmaintenance be initiated immediately to reduce overall down time. Anoperator may review the suggestion and approve it, reject it, andoptionally enter instructions to increase the likelihood of similarsuggestions or to suppress the suggestion in identical future cases(perhaps because the maintenance may not be done when the failed part isinoperative). The system may be programmed to search for acceleratedmaintenance opportunities for any delay event or only for events ofcertain kinds or with minimum expected down times. Scheduled maintenanceevents in a database may also be associated with maximum values foraccelerated or postponed execution (e.g., no more than a 2-daydifference from the scheduled time) and with a minimum down time forwhich an acceleration in the schedule could be beneficial (e.g., sincesix hours are needed, don't combine with an unscheduled down time ofless than three hours), or with other criteria.

[0204] As used herein, a “controller” or “control system” may refer toany electronic device or system of devices and any associated softwarefor controlling a process to operate within specified limits.Controllers may range in complexity from a simple control circuit tolarge, sophisticated systems such as a multi-facility distributedcontrol system employing Fieldbus Foundation-protocol field devicesystems and including central and remote installations with hardwiredand wireless connections to numerous devices (see, for example, R.Bonadio and R. Argolo, “For Remote Stations,Fieldbus+PLC+Radio=Economical Network,” InTech Online, Feb. 1, 1999).Ethernet, Allen-Bradley and Rockwell networks are further examples ofthe many systems known in the art that may be used according to thepresent invention.

[0205] Control systems commonly employ PLCs (programmable logiccontrollers) to treat I/O discrete variables. The PLC central processingunit (CPU) not only allows users to execute interlocking routines butalso to communicate these internal variables for monitoring or actuationpurposes via, for example, EIA-232 or -485 ports. PLCs also have inputsfor analog variables such as current, voltage, and temperature sensors,as well as internal processing for arithmetic calculations andproportional-integral-derivative controls. Commonly, each I/O discreteinformation point requires one pair of wires connecting a field deviceto the PLC I/O module. For analog information, a transmitter orconverter is required to transform the physical variable (pressure,flow, pH, or level) to a standard signal (e.g., 4-20 mA). When there arecontrols in the system, it is necessary to have analog outputs to thevalve actuators.

[0206] The standard IEC 1131 defines hardware and software models aswell as programming languages for programmable controllers that may beemployed in the present invention. If desired, a neutral file exchangeformat (FXF) may be used as specified by PLCopen, based on a STEP (ISO10303) model that allows transport of PLC programs from the programmingenvironment of one vendor to another. IEC 1131 languages are suitablenot only for PLC programming, but also as basis for a DistributedControl System (cf. IEC 1499). Other Fieldbus-related approaches toexchange of data include Device Descriptive Languages and Device DataBase (HART, FF, PROFIBUS). An international standard for the exchange ofproduct data, ISO 10303 (STEP) may also be used for integration ofvarious data types in a control system. See, for example, “TheEngineering of Distributed Control Systems” by Rene Simon.

Illustrations of Exemplary Embodiments

[0207]FIG. 1 depicts a PIPE-based manufacturing process 30 for a product42 that requires two stages, a first process 36 in the first facility32A to produce an intermediate product 38 from raw materials 34, and asecond process 40 in the second facility 32B to produce a final product42 from the intermediate product 38. The first facility 32A employs aPIPE system of the present invention to improve supervision of themanufacturing process. The first process 36 involves one or more unitoperations controlled by one or more operators 52A and desirablyoperated in a cooperative relationship with an automated process controlsystem 54A of any suitable kind. Events from the first process 36 arereceived and handled by a PIPE Event Logger 58, which may also timestampthe events based on clock 62 information.

[0208] The PIPE Event Logger 58 serves as a bridge between theprocess-related parameters (operator input, control system parameters,and other factors obtained from or pertaining to the first process 36)and the PIPE database 70. The PIPE Event Logger 58 may monitor eventtriggers (though a separate program may be used for monitoring as well),may send alerts to appropriate personnel or devices depending on thenature of the alert, may format and may record event data in a PIPEdatabase 70 and/or other database, may send a signal to the controlsystem 54A of the first process 36 indicating that a delay condition hasbeen resolved and the process may be started up once again (e.g.,sending permissive information to a control system 54A to allow startup, ramp up, or other procedures following a delay or, in someembodiments, a delay and/or waste event). The PIPE Event Logger 58 mayalso conduct or oversee error handling 64 or checking (data correction,for example), backup logging, and other issues. Backup logging may beespecially important when a PIPE server or communication line to thePIPE server is temporarily down, for the PIPE Event Logger 58 maycontinue writing data to a text file (a backup log) or other file on alocal computer until access to the PIPE server is restored, at whichtime the backup log may be transmitted to the PIPE server for entry intothe PIPE database 70, preventing the loss of data that would otherwiseoccur.

[0209] Data entered in the PIPE database 70 regarding the intermediateproduct 38 may be extracted to provide intermediate product data 74 foruse in the second process 40 at the second facility 32B. Theintermediate product data 74 may be accessible via an intermediateproduct identification code 60B, which may be associated with theintermediate product 38 with identification means (not shown) such as abar code or smart tag or other identification means. The intermediateproduct identification code 60B may be read by a reader (not shown), byhuman agents, or other means such that the code is entered into thecontrol system 54B (specifically, the interface module 82) for thesecond process 40. Using the intermediate product identification code60B, the control system 54B may access the intermediate product data 74from the PIPE database 70 (alternatively, the intermediate productidentification code 60B may be sent directly to the control system 54Bfor the second process 40 shortly before or as the intermediate product38 is fed into the second process 40). The operators may also viewinformation from the intermediate product data 74, such as the productmanufacturing history, the raw materials 34 used, the bill of materialsused, manufacturing events that occurred during production of theintermediate products 38, and measured material properties (not shown)which may also be linked to or entered into the PIPE database 70.

[0210] The PIPE Event Logger 58 may ensure that information pertainingto the raw materials 34 is stored and associated with the intermediateproduct data 74 and data associated with the final product 42. In oneembodiment, the raw materials 34 are associated with smart tags, barcodes, or other identification means 44 which convey an identificationcode 60A that may be read by an identification reader 50 (e.g., ascanner for bar codes or an RF reader for smart tags). The readidentification code 60A may be fed to the PIPE Event Logger 58 andoptionally used to electronically look up information in a database (notshown) such as raw material properties, manufacturing information,electronic certificates of analysis, and the like. The identificationcode 60A, when archived in the PIPE database module 70, may serve as apointer to archived raw material data, or the raw material data may bearchived directly in the PIPE database 70.

[0211] The PIPE Event Logger 58 may use the read identification code 60Ato verify that the raw materials 34 are suitable for the first process36, the intermediate product 38, or the final product 42. This may bedone by comparing the data associated with the raw materials 34 with abill of materials (not shown) for the intermediate product 38 or finalproduct 42, or operators 52A, 52B may examine the data and verify thatit is suitable for the processes 36, 40 or products 38, 42. If the rawmaterials 34 are not suitable, the first process 36 may be shut downuntil the problem is resolved, or other alarms may be activated.

[0212] Data that are entered by operators 52A or that are obtained byother means may be checked for completeness or reasonableness with anerror-checking module 64. For example, error checking may involverequiring that entered numbers fall within a plausible range, or mayprevent entry of text when digits are needed, or may require that acomment field be filled before the entered data may be processes. Expertsystem rules may also be applied to check for common mistakes orunreasonable entries. In one embodiment, error checking occurs beforeany data are accepted by the PIPE Event Logger 58 or are written to thePIPE database 70.

[0213] In one optional embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the data added to thePIPE Database by the PIPE Event Logger 58 are checked for reasonablenessor consistency with a quality assurance module 66, and optionallycorrected by the PipeMap utility 68 after review from human agents. Ifcorrections to the data must be made, the PipeMap utility 68 mayproperly correct the data without damaging needed links between data inthe database. The quality assurance module may send a message by e-mailor other means (not shown) to a human to request intervention with thePipeMap utility 68 to correct a possible problem. Any changes made orany responses to the request for intervention may be logged and storedin another database (not shown) for auditing purposes.

[0214] The PIPE database 70 is cooperatively associated with a financialreports system 56, such that data for a variety of financial reports areprovided from the PIPE database 70. Processing of data for financialreporting may be done after quality assurance procedures to ensure thatthe reported data are substantially accurate. In one embodiment, thePIPE-based manufacturing system 30 provides real time productivitymeasures for a machine which allows the profitability and yield of themachine to be updated daily in an intranet web server or other means.

[0215] The financial reports system 56 shown in FIG. 1 may include acorporate-wide reporting system that allows remote users to trackproduction, waste, delay, and/or profitability of a process, mill,sector, or other grouping of production operations, and to do so for anyperiod of time or preset time interval (e.g., current rates, cumulativeresults for any hour, day, week, month, year, etc., week to date, monthto date, year to date, etc.) and with the ability to display and printthe results by product grade or class, by machine type, by process, byproduction site, by sector, by customer, etc. For delay and wastereporting, reports may be provided for the top several (e.g., the top 5or top 10) most frequent or most costly (in terms of time andproduction) events or event categories. Waste and delay may be displayedor reported according to sections of the machine or machines of eitherfacility 32A, 32B (e.g., for a paper machine, the forming section, thepress section, the drying section, the calendering section, the coatingsection, the reel section, the slitting section, etc.), with reportsviewable by date, by grade, or by cross-direction region of the machinesin any section (e.g., by slitter position when multiple slitters areused, spaced apart in the cross-direction). Reports may be formatted astables, spreadsheets, bar charts, scatter plots, time series lines,hi-low plots, box plots, control charts, histograms, Pareto charts(e.g., a bar chart showing percent defects as a function of defect type,in descending order), cause-and-effect charts, Ishikawa diagrams (alsoknown as fish bone diagram), various three-dimensional plots, compositecharts, interactive charts such as manually rotatable scatter plots inthree or more dimensions, multimedia presentations with animation toshow changes in times (e.g., Flash files), JPEG movies, DHTML or XMLpages for interactivity in a web browser environment, and the like.

[0216] The PIPE database 70 also may be cooperatively associated with awork orders and maintenance module 72, which may automatically generatework orders and schedule maintenance based on events recorded in thePIPE database 70 (or directly based on events detected by the PIPE EventLogger 58). For example, an increased incidence of registration problemsin a machine for assembling components of a diaper may be known to beassociated with degradation of certain pieces of equipment. An expertsystem within the work orders and maintenance module 72 may detect theincreased incidence of registration problems and deduce that maintenanceof the responsible equipment is needed. The maintenance may beautomatically scheduled, optionally subject to approval from anauthorizer who may manually review the data or justification for thework, optionally supported by a justification report created by the workorders and maintenance module 72, which may include a bar graph showingthe trend of increased registration problems. Also by way of example, apart failure entered as a PIPE event in the PIPE database 70 may benoted by the work orders and maintenance module 72 which may thenautomatically issue a work order for repair and create a purchase orderfor the needed materials. Projected cost of the work and parts may beentered into the financial reports system 56.

[0217] The intermediate product 38 from the first facility 32A issubmitted to the second facility 32B as a raw material in a secondprocess 40 to produce a final product 42. The second facility 32B is notshown as equipped with a PIPE system, though it may be. But the secondfacility 32B is assisted in its operation by the intermediate productdata 74 supplied by the PIPE system of the first facility 32A, whichprovides a description of the events that occurred during production ofthe intermediate product 38 and optionally other process control andmaterial property information, such that the second process 40 at thesecond facility 32B may be adjusted with a control system 54B adaptedfor feed forward control, or the process may be modified by manualcontrol or other means responsive to the intermediate product data 74 tobest utilize the intermediate product 38, particularly by anticipatingdesired modifications in process conditions responsive to theintermediate product data 74. Intermediate product data 74 from the PIPEsystem may be supplied to both operators 52B and the control system 54Bof the second process of the second facility 32B for both human-guidedand automatic control adjustments based on the attributes of theintermediate product 38 or the defects to be encountered during its use.Feeding PIPE information (event-based production data) obtained from theproduction of a raw material 34 or intermediate material 38 into theproduction system for a final product (or other intermediate product) isone aspect of certain embodiments of the present invention directedtoward Intelligent Manufacturing.

[0218] In one embodiment, the control system 54B of the second processof the second facility 32B comprises an interface module 82 and acontrol module 84. The interface module 84 receives the intermediateidentification code 60B associated with the intermediate product 38 viaa second ID reader (not shown) or manual entry of the intermediateidentification code 60B. The control module 84 may then access theintermediate product data 74 associated with the received intermediateidentification code 60B from the PIPE database 70 or other repository ofthe intermediate product information. The interface module 84 maycompare the intermediate product data 74 with the specifications of abill of materials from a bill of materials (BOM) database 100 to verifythat the intermediate product is suitable for the second process 40 andfor the requirements of the final product 42.

[0219] The control module 84 direct process control for implementingprocess modifications in response to the obtained data, making themanufacturing system 30 a feed-forward manufacturing system, regardlessof the hardware and software details of the local process controlsystems 54A, 54B. Process modification for the second process mayinclude adjusting at least one setting of a machine in the secondfacility 32B or at least one other ingredient in the recipe provided bythe bill of materials database 100. For example, if the intermediateproduct is a tissue web with lower than normal strength, the amount ofan adhesive reinforcement applied to the tissue in the second processmay be increased to still provide an acceptable final product 42. Thebill of materials may provide acceptable ranges and provide instructionsto compensate for certain ranges of material properties of theintermediate product or other raw materials, such as increasing anapplied adhesive when a material property is lower than the target valuebut still acceptable. The final product 42 may then be associated with afinal product identification code (not shown) which points to archiveddata from the first and second processes 36, 40. The final product 42may later serve as a raw material for yet another process, or may beused commercially in any way.

[0220]FIG. 2 depicts another embodiment of a manufacturing process 30similar to the PIPE-based system for the first facility 32A in FIG. 1,but with the bill of materials 102 in a bill of materials database 100being explicitly shown. The bill of materials 102 is accessed by thecontrol system 54 and is compared with the properties of incoming rawmaterials 34, identified by accessing a raw material database (notshown) or by obtaining information from other sources that is associatedwith the identification code 60 for the raw materials 34 obtained whenan identification reader 50 reads identification means 44 on orassociated with the raw materials 34. The bill of materials 102 maycontain numerous fields associated with the process 36 and its intendedproduct (not shown). Such fields may specify the recipe (approvedmaterials, process conditions, amounts of materials to use, etc.) forthe process 36, as well as the target properties 106 desired for one ormore raw materials 34 that may have varying material properties. Inaddition to specific values of target properties 106, acceptable rangesof properties may be specified in the acceptable range field 108 for oneor more materials. Since properties away from the target values butstill within the acceptable range may sometimes require adjustments inprocess conditions or in the amount or selection of other materials, anadjustments field or fields 110 may provide instructions for desiredprocess modifications to compensate for off-target properties of the rawmaterials 34 or for other temporary limitations in the process 36.

[0221] Before the raw materials 34 are accepted into the process 36, theraw materials must be accepted in a process entry stage 90 in which thecontrol system 54 directs acceptance or rejection of the raw materials34 according to compliance of the raw materials with the bill ofmaterials 102. If the raw materials 34 are inappropriate or havematerial properties outside the acceptable range, the raw materials 34may be rejected as rejected materials 92, which may then be recycled,returned to the vendor, warehoused for later processing, or the like.Raw materials 34 accepted for process entry 90 may then be used in theprocess 36, which is controlled by the control system 54, and which mayprovide event data and other information sent to the PIPE Event Logger58 for storage in the PIPE database 70.

[0222]FIG. 3 depicts a flowchart showing several of the steps involvedin a PIPE system 31 that is used for financial reporting. Processsensors 46 associated with a process (not shown) provide data that allowthe system to monitor events 86 related to productivity. When a triggerevent is detected 88 (an event requiring event data to be entered in thePIPE database 70), process variables are obtained 94 from the controlsystem 54, along with obtaining operator input 96, specifically humaninput 76 from an operator who is queried by a display screen (not shown)to provide information needed in the PIPE database 70. Before (or,alternatively, after or as) the data are entered, the data are checkedfor completeness or obvious errors (incorrect ranges entered, etc.) withan error-handling step 78, which may be substantially limited to basicchecks on values entered. The data may then be properly formatted andrecorded in the PIPE database 70. Before financial reporting isexecuted, the database should be checked for quality with a data qualityassurance module 114 which may be substantially more comprehensive thanthe error handling step 78 in that entries from multiple periods of timeand multiple fields of data may be evaluated for consistency andreasonableness. Operator input in particular may need to be validateddue to the possibility of human error (e.g., wrong error code, failureto enter a description of the cause of delay, etc.). For example, if anoperator indicated that the machine delay was due to a plugged glueapplicator but machine records show that a work order was issued andfilled to replace defective roller bearings during the delay,verification of the cause of the delay may be needed and requested, withcorrection of possible errors handled with the PipeMap utility 68. Ingeneral, a data quality assurance module 114 may assess the validity ofthe data and prompt the operator or others to correct obvious problemsor confirm questionable entries. Though this is shown as occurring afterdata are recorded in the PIPE database 70, this operation may be appliedto at least some of the data prior to entry in the PIPE database 70.

[0223] Validated data may then be processed to yield reports, and inparticular, may be used to generate financial reports 116. While this isshown as occurring after data validation 98 has occurred, choosing togenerate reports on non-validated data is not outside the scope of thepresent invention, though for best results the data should be validatedto at least some degree to ensure that spurious waste and delay entriesdo not distort results. To the extent that human and machine errors maybe substantially eliminated, the need for a quality assurance module 114may be correspondingly reduced.

[0224] Report generation may proceed by the use of a query 118 from aclient to extract selected data from the PIPE database 70 and otherdatabases (not shown) that are accessible via links using pointers inthe PIPE database 70, e.g., a pointer to a STORM database (not shown) toprovide raw material information, for showing a table comparing diaperwaste for similar diapers made with mechanical fasteners from twodifferent vendors, or a pointer may point to a Bill of Materialsdatabase (not shown) to permit sorting of delay by details of therecipes used to produce certain products, for comparing the waste wheneither of two different airlaid materials are used in the production ofan absorbent medical article, or a pointer to a Shift databaseindicating which crew was used during the production of a product, sothat a report may compare the waste and delay results experienced withtwo or more crews). Queried results may be treated with filters (notshown) in a variety of ways to segregate data, such as segregating delayresults according to the slitter position in which the web component ofa medical article was slit prior to being used as a raw material.

[0225] PIPE data may then be incorporated into a display or hardcopy ofa financial report 120, such as a table of waste and delay for multipleplants during a week or month, or most common causes of delay for aproduct category before and after a change in the recipe for a product.The productivity data may be entered into a financial database (notshown), where it may be rolled up for later use in, for example, anannual report.

[0226] For example, Table 4 shows a record of delay history for amaterial lot returned in response to a query. In one embodiment, thequery returns as many delay records as exist in the database. In thisexample, there is only one record. TABLE 4 Record of Delay History.Delay Delay Machine Event Location Delay Machine Delay Ref. Duration(yards) Code Section Problem Machine 1 29:22.0 913 481 Bonder Main AirNot on Fault

[0227] In another example, Table 5 shows a record of splices for amaterial lot returned in response to a query. In one embodiment, thequery returns as many delay records as exist in the database. In thisexample, there is only one record. TABLE 5 Record of Splices. MachineRoll Splice Location Total Ref. Identifier (yards) Length Machine 1 Roll1 238 1916

[0228] In one embodiment, the PIPE system automatically prepares aMICROSOFT brand Excel spreadsheet with the productivity from one or moremachines to be incorporated in the step of generating financial reports116 or displayed on an electronic display 120 such as an intranet webpage for management review.

[0229]FIG. 4 is a hypothetical plot 122 of machine speed versus time toillustrate an exemplary definition of delay during a series of eventsrelating to machine productivity over time. The vertical axis 126,machine speed, shows the rate of operation of a process relative totime, shown as the horizontal axis 124. Initially at nearly full speed,the machine encounters a trigger at a particular time to end the run.The trigger may be due to a machine-detected web break, an operatorinput due to a safety concern, a lack of suitable raw materials forprocessing, a machine error, or other cause. The trigger initiates amachine shut down. The machine decelerates to zero speed. In onedefinition, the delay time only begins when the machine is atsubstantially zero speed, and ends when the machine begins moving again.This is the definition used to mark delay in FIG. 4. In an alternativedefinition (not shown), the delay time may be defined to span the timefrom the trigger to end the run state (or from the time when the machinehas decelerated to a predetermined speed after the trigger) until themachine begins moving again.

[0230] After the cause of the delay has been overcome, the machine isstarted again to resume production. Typically, for an operation with oneor more webs of material, a period of low-speed operation is needed toensure that components are properly aligned and pass through the systemin the correct manner (threading). The time for threading generallyneeds not be counted as delay, though one may employ a definition ofdelay in which operating below a threshold speed is considered delay. Aconsistent definition of delay for reporting is generally more importantthan which reasonable definition is selected. After successfulthreading, the machine speed is ramped up to normal running conditionsagain.

[0231]FIG. 5 is a bar chart 132 showing how the maximum capacity 134 ofa machine may be distributed. Specifically, the bar chart 132 depictsways in which the realized capacity (productivity or production rate) ofa machine may be less than the maximum capacity 134. In the first column130A starting with the left, a strategic portion 136 of the maximumcapacity 134 is deliberately allocated for modes that do not result inproduction, such as scheduled downtime 138 for maintenance or otherpurposes, including holidays, inadequate demand or manpower (marketcurtailment), research runs that do not result in shipped product, etc.Part of the strategic portion is due to operation at a lower than idealspeed (the “speed loss vs. ideal” 140 part of the strategic portion136), perhaps to maintain a certain quality standard or to conserve anexpensive component more likely to fail at full speed. The resultingscheduled capacity 142 is thus lower than the maximum capacity 134.

[0232] In the second column 130B from the left, delay time 144 decreasesproductivity. Delay time 144 may be due to changes in grades, machineproblems, and so forth. The remaining portion of the time scheduled forproduction is the uptime 146. In the third column 130C from the left,the productivity realized during uptime 146 may be lowered by running ata speed lower than what has been targeted (the planned speed, whichhelps determine the scheduled capacity), causing delay due to the speedloss versus target speed 148. Thus, speed loss decreases the capacitythat could have been achieved within the available uptime 146. Theactual speed of the machine during uptime gives a gross production ratetermed the “system rate” 150.

[0233] As illustrated in the last column 130D, the actual product yield154 generally will be lower than may be realized at the system rate 150due to machine waste 152 (e.g., product that must be discarded). Thus,the realized capacity 158 is less than the scheduled capacity 142 due toa reliability loss 156, as shown.

[0234] In several embodiments of the present invention, the PIPE systemtracks delay, speed loss 148, machine waste 152, scheduled capacity 142,and strategic reductions 136 from maximum capacity 134, allowing regularor even essentially real-time reporting of the various sources of lostcapacity, and optionally displaying the financial cost of such losses.Reports may be provided in any desired format, such as tabular,text-based, or graphical formats, and may be online reports, printedreports, and so forth.

[0235]FIG. 6 depicts an embodiment of a PIPE-assisted manufacturingprocess 30 in which raw materials 34 are converted by a process 36 usinga machine 48 to yield a product. As used herein, “machine” may refer toall equipment and unit operations used to convert raw materials 34 to aproduct 42, or to a subset of the equipment and unit operations neededto produce the product 42. Multiple sensors 46 (boxes labeled with “S”)detect process conditions and other variables pertaining to the machine48 and the process 36 of converting raw materials 36 to the product 42.These sensors 46 may be read by the PIPE Event Logger 58, the controller176 of a process control system (e.g., a system governed by WONDERWAREbrand manufacturing and process control operator-machine interfacesoftware, including those incorporating the FACTORYSUITE brandmanufacturing and process control software of Wonderware Corp.), orboth. Sensor data read by the PIPE Event Logger 58 may be forwarded tothe controller 176, where well-known principles of process control areemployed to control the system by any suitable means, including the useof actuators 178 (the box labeled “A”) to modify one or more aspects ofthe process 36. The PIPE Event Logger 58 obtains process data and adds atimestamp from a clock 62 and also provides a means for operator input76 to more fully describe an event or to specify the apparent nature andcauses of the event. Operator input 76 may be received through acomputer or any other suitable human-machine interface (HMI) (notshown). The acquired data from the PIPE Event Logger 58 is thenforwarded to a PIPE Database 70, where it may be used for generatingfinancial reports 56, desirably after the data have been examined forintegrity using a Data Quality Assurance module 160. Problems that maybe checked include apparent typographical errors, incorrect machinestate codes, delay or waste values that seem inordinately large, and soforth.

[0236] The financial reports 56 generated with the corrected PIPE datamay be in any suitable format, such as web page 162 on a secure Internetsite or an Intranet to allow remote employees to observe productivity,waste, delay, other desired parameters, including lost profit, cost ofwaste and delay, performance relative to targeted Key PerformanceIndicators, and so forth. In one embodiment, a web page 162 continuallyprovides real time productivity information in a format customizable bythe user so that machine or plant operation may be tracked essentiallyin real time, or by certain units of time such as hourly, by shift, perday, weekly, monthly, and so forth. Printed publications 164 may also beprepared in any form. In another embodiment, a spreadsheet 166 such as aMICROSOFT brand Excel spreadsheet or other spreadsheet tool is preparedin a format that may directly be incorporated into a report, such as amonthly report, quarterly report, or annual report.

[0237]FIG. 6 further depicts a neural network 168 that mines data fromthe PIPE Database 70 to look for relationships that account for wasteand delay, or for combinations of process variables or other factorsassociated with decreased waste and delay, in order to propose rulesthat may be tested for their ability to improve process productivity.For example, the neural network 168, as governed by the neural networkconfiguration 172, may operate on historical data and identify arelationship between the winter season and periodic delay associatedwith inadequate inventories of raw materials 34. The findings regardingthe seasonal increase in delay due to raw material problems may then beused to propose seasonal adjustments to managing raw materials, and maybe used to track the root causes of the problem, such as a purchasingagent who tends to be ill more in winter months. In one embodiment, theneural network 168 may have access to employee absence information forpossible correlation with certain aspects of productivity. Correctiverules may then be suggested by a process administration entity 170,either automatically or by a process administrator (e.g., a plantmanager) to whom the findings of the neural network 168 have beencommunicated. Improved rules 174 for administering raw materialpurchases and inventories may then be promulgated by the processadministration entity 170, in response to the neural network 168findings. The process administration entity 170 may also change anynumber of factors pertaining to the system, such as crew composition,policies for grade changes, machine settings (in cooperation withoperators), and so forth.

[0238] The neural network 168 (or a second neural network, not shown)may also be used to identify optimum process variables to reduce delay,and these recommended optimum variables may then be communicated to thecontroller 176 of the control system (or to a human operator or processadministration entity 170) to improve performance and reduce waste anddelay in the process 36.

[0239] The success of any changes made to the process 36 or its mannerof operation may also be examined with the financial reports 56generated in association with the PIPE Database 70. For example, beforeand after trends in waste or other parameters may be displayedgraphically or in data tables to show the apparent impact of changemade.

[0240]FIG. 7 depicts another embodiment of PIPE-assisted manufacturingprocess 30 in which raw materials 34 are converted by a machine 48 in aprocess 36 to yield a product. The operation is similar to that of FIG.6 except that an embodiment of the quality assurance module 160 is shownin more detail. Here the dotted box labeled “PIPE Data QualityAssurance” 160 shows that PIPE data from the PIPE database 70 aresubmitted to a Data Integrity Agent 180, a step that should occur beforeany PIPE data are incorporated into financial reports 56, or at leastbefore the data are incorporated into permanent financial reports orother subsets of financial reports such as those made available to thepublic. The Data Integrity Agent 180 is an intelligent agentcooperatively associated with fuzzy expert rules 188 (or any otherartificial intelligence system or system of rules governing theintegrity of PIPE data). The fuzzy expert rules 188 may, in oneembodiment, be continually updated or refined through the learning ofthe neural network 168 that mines PIPE data and, in cooperation with aprocess administration entity 170 (such as a human administrator or asupervisory artificial intelligence program), yields recommended rules174 for improved operation of the process 36 to increase productivity orquality. Some of the rules, as shown with the dotted line 190 from“Rules” to “Fuzzy Expert Rules,” may be used to flag anomalous orsuspect data.

[0241] The Data Integrity Agent 180 examines data and looks foranomalies, discrepancies, errors, including conditions that are aspecified number of standard deviations away from the expected value oroutside the normal extremes for the process 36. For example, if 6 hoursof down time are attributed to the need to clean a meltblowing nozzle, aflag may be raised for that entry in the PIPE database 70. The flaggedcondition is recorded 182, and an intervention request 184 is generatedby the Data Integrity Agent 180, which may be e-mail sent to an operatoror plant manager, a copy of which may be archived in an audit database(not shown). In response to the intervention request 184, modifications186 of operator-entered data (or other data, if needed) may be made andthe corrections logged and stored in the audit database (not shown).After the integrity of the data has been checked, the corrected PIPEdatabase 70 may then be used for the generation of financial reports 56or other reports (GMP reports, etc.). For best results, the financialreports 56 should only be generated after a check of data integrity hasoccurred, whether the check is done repeatedly and automatically by aData Integrity Agent 180 or in other ways, such as by other integritychecking means in response to a request for a financial report 56.

[0242] The Data Integrity Agent 180 may also perform simple checks suchas confirming that each day has 24 hours of accounted time (e.g., thetotal of time distributed between mutually exclusive categories such asrun time, down time, unscheduled time, and so forth).

[0243] Though not shown in FIG. 7, an additional expert system or neuralnetwork may be employed to learn from the modifications that are made byhuman users to the PIPE data in response to the intervention request184. Comparing flagged records 182 with the resulting modifications 186may be used to update the rules used by the Data Integrity Agent 188 aswell as the recommendations made in the intervention request 184.

[0244]FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing steps preceding the shipment of araw material from a vendor of the raw material to a manufacturer for usein making a product. The production of the raw material by the vendor isdone in association with the manufacturer's use of a PIPE system 212.The flow chart begins with the vendor receiving a unique vendor ID 196from the manufacturer that may form a portion of the license plate codeused to track a raw material. The vendor code is supplied by themanufacturer and is entered into the manufacturer's STORM/PIPE system212. The vendor, already having a vendor ID code, may then receive anorder 198 for the raw material from the purchasing department 210 of themanufacturer. The vendor may then produce the raw material 200, and thencreate a batch code 202 for the raw material which may be coupled withthe vendor ID code to create a unique code identifying the raw materialand allowing tracking of the raw material and its material properties,which are measured 204 and entered into a materials database 190 withthe license plate code (including the batch code+vendor ID code).

[0245] In a step not shown in FIG. 8, an electronic certificate ofanalysis may be created to allow the manufacturer upon receipt of theraw material to verify that it is within specifications and suitable foruse for a particular product, using the Supplier Data Management Systemof commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/253200, “SupplierData Management System,” filed Sep. 23, 2002 by Amy H. Boyd et al.,previously incorporated by reference.

[0246] After measurement of the raw material properties 204, the rawmaterial may be provided with identification means 206 (a bar code,smart tag, or other means) to convey the license plate code. The rawmaterial is then shipped to the manufacturer 208, who may electronicallyread the identification means upon receipt to identify the raw materialand gain access to the associated data in the materials database 190 toexamine any raw material properties, comments, or other informationpertaining to the raw material prior to using the raw material in themanufacturer of a product.

[0247]FIG. 9 depicts one embodiment a PIPE-assisted manufacturingprocess 30 showing a hardware configuration according to the presentinvention. The figure shows three levels, the machine level 216, theplant operations level 218, and the remote location/corporate enterpriselevel 220. At the machine level 216, a machine network 222 including PLCdevices 236 or other sensor systems provides data to an HMI server 224equipped with control software such as WONDERWARE brand manufacturingand process control operator-machine interface software (not shown). TheHMI server 224 may be interfaced with or connected to other operatorstations (e.g., a WINDOWS NT brand operating system operator station) aswell, depicted as the HMI client 226. An event logger 228 program shownas hosted on the HMI server (though it could be on another connecteddevice in a LAN), runs to monitor events based on information obtainedfrom the machine network 222 by PLC devices 236 or sensors in general.The event logger 228 sends event data to the PIPE server 230 via amachine switch 232 and plant switch 234, or, if the PIPE server 230 isdown or there are other communication problems, the event logger 228creates a backup log 252 of event information that may be in the form ofSQL statements. The HMI server 224, in general, sends operations dataout to the PIPE server 230, and may receive master table informationfrom the PIPE server 230 as well to govern the format or form of datasent out. Data sent to the PIPE server 230 may be archived in the plantPIPE database 256.

[0248] Manual delay data and information from WONDERWARE brandmanufacturing and other process control operator-machine interfacesoftware may be shared directly between the HMI server 224 and the HMIclient 226 (or other WINDOWS NT brand operating system operatorstations). A machine logger 238 running on the HMI client 226 (or it maybe elsewhere, such as on the HMI server 224) responds to events detectedby the event logger 228 and presents an alert to operators, requestingcomments and other information to characterize the delay. Delayinformation is captured by the machine logger 238 and forwarded to thePIPE server 230 via the machine switch 232 and plant switch 234. Themachine switch 232 also may receive other information 250 from variousunit operations (not shown) and raw materials information 240, such asscanned license plate information or general bar code or smart taginformation scanned by a wireless scanner 242 and transmitted via radiofrequency signals 244 to a receiver 246, which sends the transmission tothe machine switch 232. From the machine switch 232, the raw materialsinformation 240 may be sent to a STORM server 254 (e.g., a WINDOWS NTbrand operating system server) via the plant switch 234 where relateddatabases may be accessed, or raw materials data may be directly loadedinto the STORM server 254. Raw material information 240 from the STORMserver 254 may be checked against a bill of materials database 254 toverify that the raw material is suitable for the product to be made. Anelectronic certificate of analysis (not shown) may also be generated ormade available and transmitted back to the HMI server 224 or othermonitor available to operators performing the scan 248 of the rawmaterial.

[0249] Several functions may be executed either by the event logger 228or software on the STORM server 254, as desired. The STORM server 254may be the host computer for raw material scanning 248, and may drivedumb terminals or other displays to guide operators receiving or loadingraw materials, including generating a signal to generate a display inresponse to a scan showing the acceptability of a raw material ordisplaying the certificate of analysis for the raw material. Thedecision to accept a raw material may be made by the STORM server 254,responsive to bill of material information obtained from the BOMdatabase 254 or other information from the plant database 256. The STORMserver 254 may send a signal to an operator and/or to the event logger228 when an incorrect material is being loaded or considered for loadingto warn of the problem and optionally to shut down the machine orprocess until correct raw materials are provided, or until an overrideis authorized or a recipe is altered. Information is shared with thePIPE server 230 and may be written to the plant PIPE database 256 or apointer may be added to the plant PIPE database 256 to show the locationof the raw materials data on the STORM server 254.

[0250] At the plant level 218, one or more computers for plant access264 allow employees to access HMI systems or other control systems andplant reporting systems (not shown), and to access PIPE information andPIPE reports via the PIPE server 230 and its connection to the plantPIPE database 256.

[0251] A router 258 joins remote locations and corporate-level 220systems to the plant level 218 PIPE server 230 and associated databases254, 256, helping to provide means for communication of information 260between the plant level 218 and corporate level 220. Computers providingremote access 266 at the corporate enterprise level 220 are connectednot only to the plant level 218 PIPE system, but also to an enterpriseSQL server for PIPE rollup 268, in which the PIPE databases of multipleplants (not shown) are periodically rolled up at the corporate level 220by providing data for the central PIPE database 270, accessed via theenterprise SQL server 268 for PIPE rollup. A financial reporting server274 with access to a financial or other corporate database 272 is alsoconnected to the enterprise SQL server 268 via the router 258, allowingfinancial analyses and forecasts to be made on the basis of current andhistorical productivity levels. Numerous charts and tables may begenerated, and many aspects of plant, sector, and corporate performancemay be analyzed through the availability of rolled up PIPE data andconsolidated operations data on the enterprise SQL server 268.

[0252] The central PIPE database 270 may host standardized mapsdescribing how PIPE data from the plants is formatted or interpreted,and these maps may be downloaded to the plant-level PIPE servers 230 asneeded via the enterprise SQL server for PIPE rollup 268. Theplant-level 218 PIPE databases 230 may host PIPE support tables, PIPEoutput tables, packaging tables, and STORM tables, for example. Mappinginformation and operational information may be shared between theplant-level PIPE database 256 and the PIPE server 230.

[0253]FIG. 10A and FIG. 10B show how the product variables and processvariables may be loaded, saved, and updated for a manufacturing process30 incorporating a PIPE system of the present invention. FIG. 10Adepicts a local plant database 276 that maintains records for productvariables 278 including product recipes 280 or product specifications(e.g., the composition, size, color, etc. of various product grades) andsettings for process variables 282, which may be linked to or may beindependent of the grade recipes. In the four steps shown 286, 288, 290,and 292, an operator first chooses to change grades, switching thecurrent recipe 280 from the recipe for Grade A 280A to the recipe forGrade C 280C. The HMI server 224 then sees the grade change and saves294 the current process variables by writing them into the stored recipefor Grade A 280A (this may be an update of a previous recipe for GradeA). The Grade C recipe 280C is then loaded into the HMI server 224,which in turn updates the control processors for the machine network 226via communication means 294 which may include an Ethernet system, aDCSNet system, and the like. A central or plant PIPE database 70periodically records 310 the product variables 278 and process variables282, taking “snapshots” of variables in use at particular times. Thesevariables may be accessed to identify the operating conditions when aparticular product was made.

[0254] In one embodiment, each recipe 280 comprises productspecification fields 304 including a name field 312 and at least onedata field such as data field #1 314A through data field #N 314N, whereN is a positive integer.

[0255] The records in the PIPE database 70 may include delay records 306for each event comprising data fields such as a delay code 316A, a delayduration 316B, a time stamp 316C indicating when the event occurred, anda product count 316D (e.g., the number of articles that had beenproduced in the shift or production run prior to the event). The PIPEdatabase 70 may also include waste records 308 for waste events. A wasterecord 308 may include data fields such as a waste code 318A, a defectcount 318B (e.g., the number of articles lost), a time stamp 318C, aproduct count 318D, and so forth. Other fields (not shown) may indicatewhere in the machine a defect occurred (if this information is notalready uniquely indicated by the waste code 318A or delay code 316A),which operators were active, etc., and may provide links to the currentrecipe 280 and current process variables 284 that were in use when theevent occurred.

[0256]FIG. 10B illustrates a manufacturing process 30 related to that ofFIG. 10A, showing the events that occur when a change is made in theprocess variables 282. First, a process variable change on the machine(not shown) is detected 322 or reported to the HMI server 224. The HMIserver 224 then accesses the plant database 276 and updates 324 thetable of process variables corresponding to the current variables 284.The new variables, if deemed to be superior to previous variables for agrade, may be recorded as the specified variables for the correspondinggrade or grades. For example, Variable Set 1 284A may be suitable foruse with the recipes for Grade A 280A and Grade D 280D, and may be thevariable set that is in force as the current variables 284. Afterexamination of PIPE data, an operator may determine that runnabilitywould be enhanced on the average by adjusting a process variable such asa temperature in a reactor. After the changed variable is detected 322and used to update the current variable set 284, the operator or processadministrator may use the new current variable set to redefine VariableSet 1 284A, or to create a new variable set (not shown).

[0257] The recorded process variables 282 may then be used again later,such as being downloaded to the HMI server 224 from the plant database276 to restore 320 the process variables 282 when new HMI software isinstalled, when new control applications are installed, following a shutdown, or when a grade is changed. In some embodiments, process variablesare present in the HMI server for routine grade changes and are onlydownloaded from the plant database 276 when there is a need to restore320 process variables.

[0258]FIG. 11 and FIG. 12 depict audit operations for modifying ordeleting data from a PIPE database. In FIG. 11, once a need has beenrecognized for record modification, the process begins with a messagebeing sent to modify a record. The message results in a modificationrequest being recorded in a source table, and a copy of the originalunmodified record being stored in an audit table. The modification isthen made, changing the record the source table. FIG. 12 shows that asimilar process is applied when deleting records, resulting in therequest to delete a record being stored in a source table, while theoriginal record is stored in an audit table, followed by executing thecommand to delete a record from a source table.

[0259]FIG. 13 is an exemplary screenshot for a reporting systemdeveloped for use with a PIPE system of the present invention. Shown arethe types of filters and query information that the user may select toobtain charts or tables of productivity information and other financialreports based on a reporting system cooperatively associated with thePIPE system of the present invention. Exemplary reporting parameters mayinclude mean time between shutdowns, mean delay on shutdown, occurrencesof waste or delay events, and so forth. As shown, reporting may begenerated for an entire plant, a specific machine, a section orsubsection of the machine, a particular crew, or a particularly productor group of products. Reports may explore productivity issues forparticular event types or production modes (e.g., normal, start ups,research runs, etc.) or machine states (start up, threading,accelerating, full speed, etc.). Once selections have been made, resultsmay be displayed as a table, a chart, a graphical depiction of theprocess with embedded or hyperlinked report details, etc.

[0260] The reporting system processes data stored in a database. Thedata includes, but is not limited to, automatically collectedevent-based waste and delay records in a manufacturing system. Eachrecord represents an event and includes, for example, a timestamp, anevent code, and a measure of cost or production loss associated with theevent. The reporting system may be implemented as a system on one ormore computer-readable media having computer-executable components.Further, the system may include a graphical user interface including adisplay and a user interface selection device. A display device rendersthe display.

[0261] In general, the reporting system displays a report user interfaceas illustrated in FIG. 13 via a view component on the display device toa user. The user interface defines a plurality of time periods and aplurality of financial report types. The reporting system receives fromthe user via the user interface selection device a selected time periodcorresponding to one or more of the time periods and a selected reporttype corresponding to one or more of the report types (e.g., via aninput component). With reference to FIG. 3, in response to the receivedselections (e.g., as query 118), the reporting system retrieves reportdata associated with the selected report type for the selected timeperiod from the data in the database in response to a user command(e.g., via an execution component) to generate a financial report at116. The retrieved report data pertains only to the selected timeperiod; that is, data from any other time period is excluded from thereport data. The time periods include, but are not limited to, amonth-to-date time period, a week-to-date time period, a year-to-datetime period, a last thirty days time period, a last seven days timeperiod, and a user-specifiable time period. For the user-specifiabletime period, the analyst specifies a start date and an end date. In theembodiment of FIG. 13, the user may use the user interface selectiondevice (e.g., a mouse) to select the “SUBMIT” button to issue the usercommand or send an execution signal to the reporting system.

[0262] In addition, the report user interface allows an analyst to trackinformation such as percent of rolls with a delay event, spliceefficiency, and the waste and delay associated with different unwindspindles, raw material slit position, lot number, and position within aroll. The analyst may also track, for example, the amount of waste ordelay as a function of the raw material age to allow the analyst tooptimize inventory levels. In addition, the PIPE reporting page allowsan analyst to “drill down” through data. In other words, the analystusing the report user interface can roll up at the sector level anddrill down by mill (e.g., selecting a mill). After clicking a mill, theanalyst may further drill down by machine. Further, the analyst mayclick a sector delay number or waste number and to generate a reportthat shows top delay items or waste items by mill. These numbers may befollowed to drill down to the machine level. The report summarizes wasteand delay by machine section and/or a “top 10” or “top 50” report of thehighest causes of waste and delay.

EXAMPLE 1

[0263] A raw material change was implemented across a number ofproduction facilities, resulting in direct cost savings over theprevious material. There was a strong perception among employees at theproduction level that this new material caused a number of processingproblems and had a deleterious effect on machine uptime. Increasedprocess interruptions and machine downtime may potentially negate thesavings achieved with the raw material change.

[0264] Anecdotal evidence from production facilities caused concern thatoverall cost savings might not be what was expected because of theincreased processing difficulties. Although it seemed clear that somefacilities were experiencing difficulties with the new material, a totalcost savings analysis was difficult because different machines changedto the material at different times. Further, the facilities tended touse different criteria for determining the impact of the new material,and once some machines experienced problems, sensitivity to the newmaterial was increased and operators on machines that had not seenproblems now reported them.

[0265] In order to achieve an accurate and unbiased assessment of thetotal financial impact of the material change, the PIPE database wassearched for 28 different categories of machine interruption eventsknown to be caused by the raw material change. The number of events anddowntime caused by each event was tallied for each machine on aday-to-day basis for a baseline period before the conversion and for aperiod after the conversion. All machines were then placed on anormalized time scale where the conversion day was marked by 0. Thismethod allowed the assessment of the average relative impact of the rawmaterial change. A financial-based formula calculated the combined costof machine stops and downtime minutes.

[0266] Results indicated that for a three-month period after the rawmaterial conversion, there was a significant increase in stops anddowntime minutes due to the new material, validating what wasexperienced at the production facilities. This increase may have beenenough to warrant a change to the previous material. A key result fromthe analysis was that, after the three-month period, the number of stopsand the amount of delay was not statistically different than the averagepre-conversion baseline. This indicated that after a relativelytroublesome conversion time, the new raw material may be used atsignificant cost savings.

[0267] The above example required after-the-fact mining of PIPE data bya human agent. The mining of the PIPE data to identify the financialcosts of a raw material change may, in an extension of the aboveexample, be modified to be generated automatically. For example, acentral server may be programmed to compile production data from variousmachines or plants that implement a change in a raw material or otheraspects of the recipe for a product, or that make a change in equipment,process conditions, and the like. For meaningful analysis of the effectof the change in productivity, the rolled-up data from various sitesmust be normalized to provide a cumulative time series having a commontimeline based on the day that the change was made, which may correspondto different actual dates for the various sites. Thus, the time-seriesdata for each machine or plant may need to be shifted so that thecumulative, averaged, or weighted combination of the data yields a timeseries with a common origin (day zero) corresponding to the change (orto an arbitrary period of time before of after the change).

[0268] In one embodiment, PIPE data from each plant includes informationon changes and dates of the change for any change in product recipe,equipment, crew size, etc., so that similar changes at other facilitiesmay be compared based on a meaningful normalized timeline that mayrequire shifting the actual dates for many or all raw data series toprovide normalized productivity results for a particular change. In arelated embodiment, a user such as an accountant or supervisor may beprovided with a menu on a web-based display or other software system,allowing selection of one of several process or raw material changesthat have been implemented at one or more facilities, whereupon anormalized time series is displayed showing before and after data fromall involved facilities (one data point per facility per reportingperiod is displayed) or of combined data (one data point per reportingperiod, averaged or summed or otherwise combined from the results fromvarious facilities for the reporting period), wherein the data typedisplayed may be selected from a list of available productivity andfinancial parameters. The resulting data sets displayed may be smoothed,statistically analyzed, transformed, displayed on a web page,incorporated as a graph into a report, and so forth. In this manner, theimpact of various changes at various facilities executed at varioustimes may be compared in a meaningful way, allowing combined before andafter results to be displayed and further analyzed, as desired, toassess the financial impact of a change (e.g., its impact on anyselected productivity measure, including net profit, operating cost,etc.).

EXAMPLE 2

[0269] In the production of an article including a web, the web had beenslitted to a narrow width suitable for the article. The narrow roll ofthe slitted web used as a raw material was produced in another processby slitting a wider roll of the web material. Each slitted roll of theweb material was tracked with bar code information that identified theroll, its date and place of manufacturer, and its position on theslitter. The slitter had a plurality of slitter blades and formed aplurality of narrow slitted sections of the web numbered from 1 to N,where N is the number of slit sections and N−1 is the number of slitterblades used. The outer positions of the web were sections 1 and N, whilethe central position of the web was position N/2 (for even N). The rollsof raw material were used on a machine for producing an article. Themachine was equipped with a PIPE system to track process events such aswaste and delay at various locations in the machine. Over a period oftime, production data was obtained for articles produced with the websfrom all slitter positions, and each product was associated with a lotnumber that may be used to identify which slitter position theassociated web came from.

[0270] PIPE reporting systems were then used to display cumulative delayduring the production period, filtered to only consider delay associatedwith web handling problems related to the slit web (e.g., a subset ofthe logged delay codes were used that were known to be linked to webhandling problems). The results were further segregated according tosplitter position for the web, which was possible because raw materialinformation (including slitter position of the web) had been recordedand was accessible via the PIPE database for the production period.Delay results were displayed as a bar graph, with N bars representingcumulative web-related waste for each of the N slitter positions. Theouter bars, corresponding to slitter positions 1 and N, the outsidepositions, showed the highest delay. Since the web at the outerpositions is less restrained than the web in the inner positions duringa slitting operation, it is believed to be more subject to flutter,drift, tearing, or other problems, so one may understand that slittingmay be more problematic at the outer positions. Problems in slitting forthe outermost positions appeared to be clearly reflected in the reporteddelay rates grouped by slitter position. This method allowed the impactof the problem to be quantified and its effect on financial returns tobe determined. Decisions regarding process improvements may then beintelligently pursued and evaluated on a sound financial basis, such asconsideration of adding additional restraint to the outer edges of theweb such as slitting an thin trim section to be discarded or findingalternative uses for outer portions of the slit web or adjustingproduction conditions in making a product that employs web slit at theouter positions of a slitter to compensate for expected web handlingproblems.

[0271] In a related embodiment, a quality control system (including oneassociated with a PIPE system) in the web slitting facility may detectand log possible web quality problems through the use of machine visionduring slitting or through other sensors, and this information as afunction of the position inside each roll may be fed to the articleproduction line (e.g., into a STORM system) to permit adaptive responseof the production line to deal with anticipated quality problems atspecific locations in the roll of the slitted web. In this manner, wasteand delay may be reduced by communication between a machine producing araw material and the machine using the raw material, particularly with afeed-forward system based on measured attributes of the raw materialsbeing used.

EXAMPLE 3

[0272] This example deals with analysis of actual PIPE data obtainedwith a proprietary PIPE-based manufacturing system in whichmanufacturing events from a consumer products machine were recorded overtime. The machine processed a variety of raw materials, including websof material provided in roll form. To maintain a continuous web beingfed into the machine, web splices were routinely performed, particularlybetween the tail end of one roll and the leading edge of the next roll.

[0273] During the review of PIPE summary data of machine stops and delayon the consumer products machine, a particular machine section wasidentified as contributing an excessively large percent of the totalnumber of daily machine stops. A number of possible reasons for theincreased section stops were hypothesized, some of which were connectedto various other events that occurred on the machine. In particular,various raw material splice events were suspected as possible causes forthe increased stops in the particular machine section. In order to testthese hypotheses, PIPE data were retrieved for every machine stop thatoriginated in the particular machine section over a number of months.From these data, the exact time of each stop was obtained. These eventtimes were tested for correlation with other machine events such asmachine start-up, raw material splice on, etc. (The occurrence times forthese other events were also obtained from the PIPE and STORMdatabases.) Analysis showed that the machine section stops were highlycorrelated with the splice-on event of one particular raw material.

[0274]FIG. 14 shows the results of this analysis. The normalizedprobability of the particular machine section causing a stop is plottedagainst the temporal distance from the raw material splice-on event. Amarked increase in the probability of a stop around this event isevident. In addition to showing a strong relationship between the twoevents, a distinct bi-modal distribution in the probability of a stop isapparent, suggesting that at least two different failure mechanisms wereresponsible for the section stops. The relative frequency of each peakof the distribution allowed proper prioritization of recourses tocorrect the problem.

[0275] In many modern converting lines, such as those that manufacturepersonal care articles, different events, such as new rolls of rawmaterial splicing on, may occur every few minutes. It is highlyimprobable for an operator to be able to discern, on a long-term andstatistically significant basis, between the many possiblecause-and-effect relationships that may cause machine stops. The presentexample illustrates the potential of mining PIPE data for correlationsto identify previously unrecognized problems or opportunities.

EXAMPLE 4

[0276] Examples of financial reports automatically obtainable by a PIPEsystem for a hypothetical manufacturing operation are shown in FIG. 15to FIG. 18. FIG. 15 shows the yield in a plant over a ten-week period,showing weekly averages, and a moving three-week average as well as theaverage from the previous quarter. The report includes informationspecifying the machine and reported Waste Opportunity Cost (labeled asyield opportunity costs). FIG. 16 shows a related report from the samemill, but reporting uptime results instead of yield. The DowntimeOpportunity Cost is also reported. The total opportunity cost is the sumof the Downtime Opportunity Cost and Waste Opportunity Cost.

[0277] In another embodiment, a user generates curves in a financialreport that represent different machine uptimes for a process havingmultiple process steps. The actual data for individual processes maythen be plotted to give a visual representation of the performance ofthe individual processes. From this one plot, an analyst may viewprocess performance and analyze how duration and frequency play a rolein producing that result. In addition, tables with data for varyingpercentages of machine uptime may also be generated for analysis.

[0278] In another example, a normalized process/section uptime numberfacilitates comparison not only to other process sections but also to amachine uptime number. The machine uptime number is generated byfactoring in the number of process sections in the machine indetermining process uptime. By plotting process results on a graph, ananalyst may view overall performance, variability in performance,contributing factors to performance, and frequency or duration. Theresults may be grouped into levels of performance that potentially maybe related to the types of corrective action. For example, differentcorrective actions may be employed if the process uptime is greater thanseventy percent, less than seventy percent but greater than fiftypercent, or less than fifty percent. Those skilled in the art will notethat the percentage thresholds are exemplary and will vary in differentembodiments.

[0279]FIG. 17 shows opportunity costs for a single delay event (spraynozzle failure, listed as code 114) on a single machine, showing weeklyresults over ten weeks, and a three-week moving average. A projectedannual opportunity cost for this event is reported to allowadministrators and operators to understand the financial impact of theevent.

[0280]FIG. 18 shows a bar chart in which the top six most costly causesof opportunity loss are reported for a specified time period on aparticular machine.

[0281] The reports may be generated in response to a user request or maybe specified for automatic display and updating to permit processadministrators to review the information periodically.

EXAMPLE 5

[0282] A prophetic example is described illustrating how a PIPE databasemay be mined to identify the importance of previously unrecognizedvariables that may require further monitoring to improve a process oravoid production problems. Analysis of production event from a singlemachine or single production facility frequently may be inadequate toidentify causes of quality problems, particularly when the cause isassociated with factors that are not being included in the database. Forexample, a production problem at a certain time in a cosmetic productionline may not have any apparent link to measured raw material properties,line speed, process temperature, and other measured parameters. Toexplore the possibility of environmental or other factors beingassociated with the production problem, PIPE event data from othermachines in the same production facility may then be analyzed to see ifthere were related production problems at the same time. If so, ahypothesis may be offered that an environmental or system factor may beat fault, such as process water properties (temperature, pH, dissolvedsolids, pressure, etc.), humidity, air temperature, dust or othercontaminants in the air, a drop or surge in the voltage of electricityprovided to the facility, an outbreak of mold in the facility, and thelike. Alternatively or in addition, archived data from other sources maybe examined, such as a log of water quality measurements, weatherinformation, process water pressure measurements, and the like. Theother source of data may be external to the production facility, such asweather data recorded by a meteorological station.

[0283] The PIPE system may automatically search other databases toidentify possible factors that could account for quality problems, ormay inform a human supervisor of the existence of common factors thatmay be associated with related production problems on multiple machines,and request further action to identify suspected factors. Once factorsare identified as having relevance to a production problem, thesevariables may be routinely monitored as part of the process controlapproach for the machine and the variables may be incorporated into thePIPE database.

[0284] Likewise, production problems with no apparent cause may be usedto infer that other factors are playing a role. Steps may then be takento further identify the factors and add them to the list of variablesbeing monitored in production. These steps may include accessing otherdatabases to search for correlations, or using human input or expertsystems to propose hypothesis that may then be tested, typically viaexpanded measurement of raw material properties, process performance,machine conditions, and so forth, to temporarily obtain additional datauntil likely causes are identified.

EXAMPLE 6

[0285] One prophetic example of a graphical interface for access toproductivity reports is described. For a corporation with multipleproduction facilities, the PIPE databases and associated databases areaccessed and filtered to provide a wide array of customized reportsbased on user input via a graphical interface. At one level, theinterface shows an electronic map depicting icons for the units such asthe corporation as a whole and the various sectors and the productionfacilities associated with the sectors. The interface may be providedvia a web browser using tools such as JAVASCRIPT brand computerprograms, ACTIVEX controls, XML, DHTML, FLASH brand computer software(Macromedia Corp.), and the like, or may be provided via other means,such as a graphical display in a Human-Machine Interface system such asWONDERWARE brand manufacturing and process control operator-machineinterface software, a VISIO brand drawing and diagramming softwareapplication (Microsoft Corp.), an electronic map of Business EnterpriseMapping (Scottsdale, Ariz.), or other customized software. Selectionsmade via controls on the screen, including selections offered byclicking on icons, may generate productivity reports for a user-definedperiod of time, product category (including all categories), or soforth. For example, an officer of the corporation may wish to reviewoverall financial information for all production facilities makinghealth-care products for the current quarter. Upon opening a PIPE reportscreen via a web browser connected to the corporate Intranet, a screenis provided offering various controls to select the report parameters,and also displaying icons for various corporate entities, such as theoverall corporation, its sectors or divisions, and the plants associatedwith each sector. In one embodiment, the screen is provided in a mannerthat shows relationships between the entities (such as an organizationchart with lines depicting relationships).

[0286] A quarter-to-date radio button on the screen may be selected, acheckbox for “waste” may be checked, and a health care category may beselected in a drop down box also on the screen. At this point, the iconsfor corporate entities on the screen may change in size, color, textualannotation, and/or associated controls (e.g., offered hypertext links,drop-down box items or pop-up menu selections) to convey informationabout the status of the entities. For example, icons representingsectors or mills that had acceptable levels of waste may appear green,and those with waste above a threshold value (with waste measurementbased on wasted product numbers or percentage of waste or a financialmeasure of the impact of waste, for example) may appear red, with thecolor saturation being a function of the magnitude of the waste level.Statistics may appear in a box or column associated with each icon toreport desired parameters, and charts for waste incidents or otherproductivity measures may be offered for any plant or sector by clickingon the icon and making a selection from a pop-up menu. Double-clickingon an icon for a mill (or other suitable actions) may expand the displayto show icons or other graphics representing processes or machines in amill, optionally with display of a new window to show mill-relatedgraphics. A new window, for example, may show a graphical depiction ofprocesses used to manufacture the products made at the mill, with theprocesses being depicted as flow charts or as interrelated machinesdepicted with icons showing the relationship between the components(hardware, raw materials, final products, etc.). Productivity resultsmay be displayed for each process for a given product, allowing theviewer to rapidly identify which parts of the process or of a machinewere causing the greatest waste or delay. For example, a graphicaldepiction of a papermaking machine might show a square representingstock prep, connected by a line to a box representing a forming section,connected by another line to an icon representing a press section,connected by another line to an icon representing a drying section andfinally connected by another line to a box representing a winder. PIPEinformation may be dynamically linked to the display such that the partsof the process were displayed in a color indicating the level of delaycaused by events associated with the respective parts. Thus, for auser-defined reporting period such as quarter -to-date, the dryingsection may be colored in bright red to indicate that it has contributedsubstantially more delay than other components. Clicking on the dryersection may then provide more detailed information about the nature ofthe events, their frequency, and so forth.

[0287] In general, an interactive electronic map with multiple levels ofdetail may be provided to convey both text and graphical indications ofthe manufacturing performance of various entities in the corporation,all the way down to specific components of an individual machine in aparticular plant. The interactive displays may be linked to dynamicallyprovide more detailed information via spreadsheets or other reportingmeans. Waste, productivity, and quality issues may be viewed at aroll-up level for sectors, product categories, market categories,specific intervals of times, and so forth, with expanding displaysproviding to interactively allow the user to see how the results for oneentity are distributed between the parts that make up the entity (e.g.,multiple plants for a sector or various machines within a plant or theparts of a single machine).

Exemplary Operating Environments

[0288] The invention provides an intelligent manufacturing systemincluding a process for converting raw materials to a product, a processcontrol system including one or more sensors capable of generating analarm in response to an event that results in one of waste, machinedelay, or decrease product quality, a data logger associated with theprocess control system for obtaining event parameters associated withthe event, a database on a server for recording event parametersobtained by the data logger, and a reporting system cooperativelyassociated with the database for reporting productivity parametersregarding the process derived at least in part from the eventparameters.

[0289] In one embodiment, one or more computing devices implement theinvention as illustrated and described herein. For example, thecomputing devices may include a personal computer (PC), a mainframe, apersonal digital assistant (PDA), or a combination of various computingdevices or the like. The computing devices may communicate with eachother and/or with other computing devices via one or more networks suchas an intranet or the Internet.

[0290] In addition, the computing devices may have access to one or morecomputer-readable media storing data such as computer-readableinstructions and data structures. The computing devices execute thestored computer-readable instructions to perform the tasks embodied bythe computer-readable instructions. The computer-readable media storedata in a data signal (e.g., a carrier wave). Those skilled in the artwill note that the data signal has one or more of its characteristicsset or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the datasignal. As used herein, the terms “computer-readable medium” and“computer-readable media” encompass data signals. Further, the terms“computer-readable medium” and “computer-readable media” encompass asmart tag, a memory device, or any other device storing data and locatedproximal to a material such as a raw material or an intermediateproduct.

[0291] One or more computer-readable media have computer-executablecomponents including a control system, a database module, and a reportmodule. The control system collects event-based production informationduring manufacture of a product. The database module stores thecollected production information in a database for processing. Thereport module creates a financial report by accessing the storedproduction information.

[0292] One or more computer-readable media store a data structurerepresenting a delay record populated during manufacturing. The datastructure includes fields storing a delay code, a value representing adelay duration, a timestamp, and a product count.

[0293] One or more computer-readable media store a data structurerepresenting a waste record populated during manufacturing. The datastructure includes fields storing a waste code, a defect count, atimestamp, and a product count.

[0294] When introducing elements of the present invention or theembodiment(s) thereof, the articles “a,” “an,” “the,” and “said” areintended to mean that there are one or more of the elements. The terms“comprising,” “including,” and “having” are intended to be inclusive andmean that there may be additional elements other than the listedelements.

[0295] In view of the above, it will be seen that the several objects ofthe invention are achieved and other advantageous results attained.

[0296] As various changes may be made in the above systems and methodswithout departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended thatall matter contained in the above description and shown in theaccompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in alimiting sense.

We claim:
 1. A method for tracking production information, the methodcomprising: collecting event-based production information duringmanufacture of a product, the production information comprising eventdata pertaining to at least one of waste and delay; storing thecollected production information in a database for processing; andproviding access to the stored production information to a financialsystem and/or a purchasing system.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein theproviding comprises providing the stored production information to thefinancial system and/or the purchasing system in response to a requestfrom such system.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the productioninformation pertains to converting machine productivity.
 4. The methodof claim 1, wherein the collecting comprises capturing automatic delayinformation on an event basis.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein thecapturing comprises creating a delay record in a database when aconverting line halts during manufacture of the product.
 6. The methodof claim 1, wherein the collecting comprises capturing waste informationon an event basis.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the capturingcomprises creating a waste record in a database when a converting linehalts during manufacture of the product.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein one or more computer-readable media have computer-executableinstructions for performing the method of claim
 1. 9. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the financial system and/or purchasing system comprisesone or more of the following: an inventory control system, a maintenanceand reliability engineering system, a customer relationship managementsystem, a data warehousing system, a manufacturing execution system, anenterprise resource planning system, and a maintenance schedulingsystem.
 10. A method for tracking production information, the methodcomprising: collecting event-based production information duringmanufacture of a product, the production information including eventdata pertaining to at least one of waste and delay summarized from aplurality of converting lines; storing the collected productioninformation in a database for processing; and providing access to thestored production information to a financial system and/or a purchasingsystem.
 11. A method for tracking production information, the methodcomprising: collecting event-based production information duringmanufacture of a product, the collecting including capturing automaticdelay information on an event basis, the capturing including creating adelay record in a database when a converting line halts duringmanufacture of the product, and the delay record including at least oneof a delay duration, a timestamp, and a product count; storing thecollected production information in a database for processing; andproviding access to the stored production information to a financialsystem and/or a purchasing system.
 12. A method for tracking productioninformation, the method comprising: collecting event-based productioninformation during manufacture of a product, the collecting includingcapturing waste information on an event basis, the capturing includingcreating a waste record in a database when a converting line haltsduring manufacture of the product, and the waste record including atleast one of a waste code, a defect count, a timestamp, and a productcount; storing the collected production information in a database forprocessing; and providing access to the stored production information toa financial system and/or a purchasing system.
 13. A method foranalyzing production information to provide financial reports, themethod comprising: obtaining event-based production informationpertaining to at least one of waste and delay from a documentationsystem in a manufacturing system; storing the received productioninformation in a database for processing; and generating a financialreport based on the stored production information.
 14. The method ofclaim 13, wherein the obtaining comprises obtaining, from adocumentation system, production information comprising data from aplurality of converting lines in a plurality of manufacturing plants.15. The method of claim 13, wherein the generating comprises analyzingthe stored production information.
 16. The method of claim 13, furthercomprising implementing remedial action in response to the generating.17. The method of claim 16, wherein the product comprises a component,wherein the production information indicates that a component hasfailed, and wherein the remedial action comprises ordering a replacementfor the failed component.
 18. The method of claim 13, wherein theproduction information comprises event data.
 19. The method of claim 13,further comprising receiving a request from a user for the financialreport, and wherein the generating occurs in response to the receivedrequest.
 20. The method of claim 13, further comprising storing thegenerated financial report in the database for a preset time interval.21. The method of claim 13, wherein the generating comprises measuringmaterial consumption to calculate a product yield.
 22. The method ofclaim 21, wherein the production information comprises a first productcount at material start and a second product count at material expire,and wherein the measuring comprises comparing the first product countand the second product count.
 23. The method of claim 21, furthercomprising storing at least one conversion factor, product dimension,and/or material add-on in the database for access during the measuring.24. The method of claim 13, further comprising correlating productivity,waste, delay, and one or more raw materials.
 25. The method of claim 13,wherein the generating comprises measuring packaging system waste andyield.
 26. The method of claim 25, wherein the production informationcomprises a plurality of product counts into and out of a packagingsubsection during manufacturing of a product, and wherein the measuringcomprises comparing the plurality of product counts.
 27. The method ofclaim 13, wherein the production information comprises raw materialdata, and wherein the generating comprises linking the raw material datato an intermediate or finished product.
 28. The method of claim 13,wherein the production information comprises raw material, waste, anddelay data, and wherein the generating comprises linking the rawmaterial data to the waste data and/or the delay data.
 29. The method ofclaim 13, wherein one or more computer-readable media havecomputer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 13.30. A method for adapting an online production documentation system toprovide financial report data, the method comprising: identifying one ormore event-based key performance indicators; modifying output of aproduction documentation system to automatically track and generate theidentified key performance indicators during manufacturing; obtainingthe generated key performance indicators from the productiondocumentation system, the production documentation system includingevent records each having an event code, a timestamp, and a measure ofcost associated with the event; automatically generating summary datapertaining to the key performance indicators for a predetermined periodof time; and incorporating the summary data pertaining to the keyperformance indicators into a financial report.
 31. The method of claim30, further comprising formatting the financial report for display via ahypertext markup language.
 32. The method of claim 30, wherein theidentifying, modifying, obtaining, generating, and incorporating operateduring a preset time interval.
 33. The method of claim 30, wherein thepreset time interval comprises one or more of the following: a week, amonth, and a year.
 34. The method of claim 30, wherein the keyperformance indicators comprise a percent total waste, the percent totalwaste being expressed as a ratio of discarded products to actualproducts.
 35. The method of claim 30, wherein the key performanceindicators describe one or more of the following: profitability,efficiency, and production rate.
 36. The method of claim 30, wherein thekey performance indicators comprise one or more of the following:machine uptime, a production rate, unscheduled downtime, out-of-controlperformance, and a production mode.
 37. The method of claim 36, whereinthe production mode describes a status of the machine, the statuscomprising one or more of the following modes: operating, maintenance,and halted.
 38. The method of claim 30, wherein the key performanceindicators relate to one or more of the following: an individualmachine, a mill, a plurality of mills, a plant, a plurality of plants,and a product category.
 39. The method of claim 30, wherein one or morecomputer-readable media have computer-executable instructions forperforming the method of claim
 30. 40. A production documentation systemcomprising: a first database storing event-based production informationcollected during manufacturing, the production information includingautomatically generated records pertaining to at least one of waste anddelay, the records each having an event code, a timestamp, and a measureof lost production associated with the event; a report component forcreating a financial report by accessing the stored productioninformation; and a second database storing the created reports.
 41. Theproduction documentation system of claim 40, wherein the productioninformation comprises event data.
 42. The production documentationsystem of claim 40, wherein the report component and the second databasecomprise a financial system.
 43. The production documentation system ofclaim 40, wherein the financial system comprises a purchasing system.44. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executablecomponents comprising: a control system for collecting event-basedproduction information during manufacture of a product; a databasemodule for storing the collected production information in a databasefor processing; and a report module for creating a financial report byaccessing the stored production information.
 45. The computer-readablemedia of claim 44, wherein the report module comprises a user interfacefor receiving a request for the report from a user and delivering thereport in response to the received request.
 46. One or morecomputer-readable media having stored thereon a data structurerepresenting an event-based delay record populated during manufacturing,the data structure comprising: a first field storing a delay code; asecond field storing a value representing a delay duration; a thirdfield storing a timestamp; and a fourth field storing a product count.47. The computer-readable media of claim 46, wherein thecomputer-readable media is associated with a financial system.
 48. Oneor more computer-readable media having stored thereon a data structurerepresenting an event-based waste record populated during manufacturing,the data structure comprising: a first field storing a waste code; asecond field storing a defect count; a third field storing a timestamp;and a fourth field storing a product count.
 49. The computer-readablemedia of claim 48, wherein the computer-readable media is associatedwith a financial system.
 50. In a process for manufacturing a productassociated with an event-based information system comprising means foridentifying an event related to at least one of waste and delay andmeans for recording the event in an event database, a method forautomatically generating an alert and providing an associated financialreport, the method comprising: calculating the cost of waste and/ordelay events during manufacturing based on event information recorded inan event database associated with the manufacturing process; setting acost-based alert criterion for automatic report generation of an alert,the criterion being selected from a cost threshold for waste and/ordelay during a predetermined unit of time for one or more eventcategories and a cost threshold for a total of one or more of the eventsin succession; comparing the calculated cost to the cost-based alertcriterion to determine if the alert criterion has been met; and inresponse to the alert criterion being met, automatically generating analert and providing access to a financial report conveying informationpertaining to the calculated cost.
 51. The method of claim 50, whereinthe predetermined unit of time includes a moving span of time with acontinuously advancing ending point.
 52. The method of claim 50, whereinthe predetermined unit of time includes a fixed span of time with afixed starting point and a fixed ending point.
 53. The method of claim50, further comprising generating an electronic chart of event costsversus event type for a predetermined number of event types.
 54. Themethod of claim 50, further comprising attaching or including thefinancial report with the alert.
 55. The method of claim 50, whereinproviding access to the financial report comprises providing access tothe financial report via a hyperlink included with the alert.
 56. Themethod of claim 50, wherein providing access to the financial reportcomprises providing access to an interactive chart having data extractedfrom the event database.
 57. The method of claim 50, further comprisinganalyzing one or more of the events associated with the met alertcriterion and automatically generating a recommended remedial action,wherein the recommended remedial action is transmitted to a supervisorfor consideration.
 58. The method of claim 50, wherein one or morecomputer-readable media have computer-executable instructions forperforming the method of claim
 50. 59. A method for tracking productioninformation, the method comprising: collecting event-based productioninformation during manufacture of a product, the production informationcomprising event data; storing the collected production information in adatabase for processing; and providing access to the stored productioninformation to a financial system and/or a purchasing system.
 60. Aproduction documentation system comprising: a first database storingevent-based production information collected during manufacturing, theproduction information including automatically generated records, therecords each having an event code, a timestamp, and a measure of lostproduction associated with the event; a report component for creating afinancial report by accessing the stored production information; and asecond database storing the created reports.